Dan's Fury
by ClearEyes
Summary: Four years have passed since Danny Phantom/Fenton saved the world from its destruction. Vlad disappeared without a trace and hasn't been seen ever since. Sam was badly injured in a battle against Skulker and ended up in the hospital, where Clockwork appears to warn Danny about his archenemy and his evil self, who apparently team up and seek revenge. NOW COMPLETE!
1. PROLOGUE

DAN'S FURY

**Hey everyone! I'm back with another story!**

**For the one's who have me in their Authors Alert or that are following my other story "Spirited Away: Haku's Return" don't worry, I'm still writing that, I just had a momentary writers block and came up with this new story of Danny Phantom.**

**For the people who is reading me for the first time, this is just the pilot of the story; if you like it I'll continue it.**

**Thank you everyone who has me on alert subscription and thank you to all the readers that even when they don't follow me take their time to read my stories, that most of the time are a dramatic mess.**

**Please, read and review, tell me if you liked it so that I decide if I continue it or not and if I have any spelling mistakes please tell me, English isn't my native language. I apologize for any of these mistakes I didn't see and thank you again.**

**I hope you enjoy reading this.**

It was a peaceful day like any other at amity park...well, as peaceful as it can be where the place is plagued with ghosts. Still, there's nothing to worry about when Danny Phantom is around. It had been almost four years since he saved the world from its destruction and everyone in town now knew that Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton.

Since his identity had been exposed, his parents tagged along with him to fight against the ghost that appeared in town, not to mention his two best friends Sam and Tucker. He had even teamed up with Valerie to create refugees against the ghosts that were underground; they managed to get some of the chemical composition of the asteroid and developed a material in which they covered the walls of the refugee, and that way the ghosts couldn't pass through.

In that moment, Danny was fighting against Skulker for the millionth time. Some people, or ghosts, just never learn. Still, this time Skulker had mess with Danny's family directly, making him furious. Skulker tried to trick Danny into going with him into the ghost zone by kidnapping his parents, Jazz (who was supposed to be studying at college but went through all the trouble to get her back to Amity), Tucker and Sam, his former girlfriend for the past four years. Danny was slamming and shooting ecto rays at Skulker merciless and defeated him in minutes.

"That's what you get when you mess with _my_ family. Stay away from them," Danny told Skulker right before sucking him into the thermos. He the quickly flew to where his family was, trapped in a ghostly electrified cage, only the floor of the cage wasn't, that was hanging from a tree. "Guys, are you okay?" he asked them.

Everyone was sitting in the center of the cage, surrounding something. When they didn't answer him and looked down, he took a closer look, and discover an unconscious Sam lying in his father arms. "Sam! What happened to her?" Danny asked worriedly, again; and again, he received no answer.

Danny quickly phased through the floor of the cage and picked everyone up, becoming intangible, he let them out and placed them on the floor. Danny took Sam from his father's arms and put his ear to her chest. He sighed in relief when he heard her beating heart, although it was weaker than it should have been. "Please, just tell me what happened to her," he begged.

"She couldn't stand watching you getting hurt," Tucker said slowly "so she tried to force the lock before we even knew it was electrified and she received a huge shock. She was dead for a minute or so until we could get her heart beating again, but she hasn't wake up yet." No one looked at him, like assuming Sam was never going to get better.

Without a word he flew away to the hospital, turned into Fenton and explained the situation to the doctor who would be attending her. The doctor and some nurses took her away, leaving Danny in the waiting room to bite on his nails. A few minutes later everyone arrived and they even brought Sam's parents with them, and after a while the doctor came out.

"Sam Manson family?" he said and everyone gathered up around him.

"Is she going to be okay, doctor?" Danny asked, pleading with his eyes.

"She indeed received a huge electrical shock, but with your quick reaction she was saved. She is stable, although we would like to keep her under observation for the night. Don't worry, she is no longer in danger, she is going to be fine."

"Did she wake up?" Sam's mother asked.

"Not yet. We believe that the emotional and psychological shock on her was too much, and that's the reason she isn't waking up because her vitals are normal."

"Do you know when will she wake up?" Sam's dad asked

"No, we have to wait for her to recover on her own," everyone's gaze dropped down to the floor and Jazz even started crying. "Don't worry, she will recover, she is a strong girl; you can visit her now, but the time for the visits is up by six," that was the last thing the doctor said before leaving.

Sam's parents quickly went to their daughter's room while the rest of them waited for their turn outside. It's not like there was limited visits, but all of them wanted to give them the needed privacy. Danny hang his head low while waiting for his time to go inside with Sam, thinking over and over his fight with Skulker and repeating 'What went wrong?', 'Why didn't I noticed before?'

Tears starting to roll down his face and he blamed himself. He was also too worried about her and kept thinking about the 'what ifs': What if she didn't wake up? What if she died? What if she didn't remember anything when she woke up? And it terrified him thinking about his life without her. He was crying out of sadness, regret, despair, guilt, anger... There was so much on his mind that he didn't notice Maddie calling at him.

"Danny, sweetie," he looked up and looked at her mother with teary eyes; she could see all his emotions reflected on that stare "you can go in now." As soon as he caught that up, Danny stood and almost ran to Sam's room. Still, when he arrived in front of her door he stopped, scared of what he might see inside.

Slowly, she pushed the door and got inside. When he saw her he couldn't help but sob. There was Sam sleeping "peacefully" in the bed, with an hospital gown, pale, not moving in the slightest. He sat on a chair next to her bed and took her hand in his. "Oh, Sam," he sobbed again, "I'm so sorry, I'm so... so sorry."

He let the tears run down his cheeks and kissed Sam's hand. "What am I doing?" he mustered to himself and wiped the tears off, sniffled a little and got rid of the bad thoughts. "You are going to get better, Sammy, I promise with my life. You are going to wake up and I'm going to apologize again and again for the idiot I am for letting you get hurt. We'll go to the Nasty Burger with Tuck and we'll chat and laugh like always. I'm going to hug you and kiss you and make you the happiest woman in the world, so please, wake up soon, okay? I'll be waiting, forever if I have to."

"Time out" was heard and suddenly time stopped and Clockwork appeared right next to Danny. He put a time medallion on his next and he unfroze. At first he felt confused to the new and sudden weight on his neck and looked down to see the medallion. Then, slowly, looked to his right to find the very same Clockwork beside him.

"Ah!" Danny yelled in surprise, after a few breaths he calmed down "Please, Clockwork, don't pop out on me like that."

Clockwork just chuckled "Next time I'll give you a warning, then."

"I'm not going to lie, Clockwork, you didn't arrive at a good time, and whatever mission or thing you have with me will have to wait."

"Even if it has to do with Samantha?" he replied.

"What... ? Is she in danger?" Danny stood up with concern all over his face.

"Not yet, and I didn't come here to give you a mission, but a warning," Clockwork said serious "the thermos containing Dan was stolen from my place... by Vlad Plasmius."

"What? How could you let this happen? You could have stopped it, you see everything. Just like last time..." Danny shuddered at the memory of the Nasty Burger exploding with his family right there.

"Everything is the way it's supposed to be; everything happens for a reason, and this needed to happen this way... Now, listen, Vlad most likely will free Dan from the thermos, and they both have you as a common enemy. They'll do everything they can to destroy you in every possible way, so stay alert. The first person they'll attack won't be you, and she is the most vulnerable right now. Stay alert. Time in" he said and disappeared while the time started ticking again.

He looked down at Sam one last time, kissed her softly in the lips and left the room. When he arrived at the waiting room, they could see something was off; Danny had a different expression, a worried sick one, but it was different than before.

"Danny, is everything okay?" Jack asked looking at his son worriedly too.

"No, it's not... we've got trouble," Danny replied and gathered everyone around him to explain what happened a few minutes ago while the time was still.

**Thank you again for the readers of my story! Please review! Hopefully, I'll upload another chapter soon if everyone likes it and agrees =D**


	2. THE DEAL

**eWell, it wasn't very clear if you want or not this story to continue, but anyway I'm going to write it ;)**

**Here's chapter 1 (not counting the pilot)**

"Danny, you can't leave! Not with Sam like this!" Tucker exclaimed at his best friend who was preparing his stuff for a trip "What if Vlad and Dan come here while you're gone?"

"That's precisely the reason I'm going. I won't let them near Amity Park, not ever; so I'm going to Vlad's mansion to look for clues of where he could be, 'cause I honestly don't think he is actually there, and I'll try to stop him. He wants me after all." Danny sais without looking at his best friend.

"But..."

"Tucker, I need you to do me a very big favor" Danny interrupted Tucker complaints and handed him a note and an Ecto-gun. "Please, protect Sam at all costs, even when she wakes up because she'll still be very week, and... it I don't make it back in five days at most, give this note to Sam." He was looking at Tucker with Puppy-like eyes, making him unable to refuse.

"Fine! I'll do it" Tucker said taking the weapons and the note "But you better make it back, for everyonoe's sake."

"Thanks, Tucker" Danny said, giving his best friend a "manly" hug before he left, as if knowing he would never return. "Explain everything to my parents for me, and make sure they don't try to follow me!" Danny yelled as he dissapeared in the sky.

Tucker then left Danny's room and went down to the kitchen, where everyone but Sam's parents were gathered. As soon as he stepped into the kitchen everyone turned to look at him "How is Danny coping with everything?" Maddie asked Tucker.

"Well... he..." Tucker started only to be interrupted by Jazz.

"He left, didn't he?" She affirmed. Everyone's gaze was on him, making him nervous; especially Jazz's. Gosh, how she knew her brother.

"No... he's just..." he turned to see everyone's gazes and faces waiting for an answer "Yes, he left to find Vlad before he can come to Amity Park." Tucker lowered his gaze when the floor became too interesting.

"What?" Danny's parents instantly reacted. "How could you let him? How could he be so irresponsable?"

"Mom! Dad!" Jazz suddenly yelled "Danny knows what he's doing, he is not a kid anymore" Jazz firmly stood up for his brother and calmed her parents down. Tucker didn't say, though, that he didn't really think Danny would return. He didn't left to find clues, he left to surrender to Vlad so that he wouldn't go looking for trouble with his loved ones.

Still, Tucker fully hoped he was wrong and that Danny would come back triumphant.

Meanwhile, Danny headed to Vlad's mansion in Wiscounsin to "look for clues". What a lame lie; he just said that to Tucker so that he wouldn't worry, not his parents. In reality, he hoped that if he got to Vlad before he actually made a move and give in to him then he would stay away from his town. He hoped that at least, because with Vlad the rat no one knows what could happen.

He arrived faster than expected and immediatly his ghost sense went off. Thenm without a warning, he felt a huge blast on his back and fell to the ground screming in pain. "Well, well, well, look who's here... you really saved us the trouble of looking for you," said Dan.

Danny stood up slowly and spoke "I see Vlad already freed you, well, then everything is according to the plan." He spoke as if he knew what he was talking about, when in reality he was frightened, but he needed to make his poing.

Suddenly, metalic ropes tied him and sent electrical shock all around his chest. Danny screamed in pain again as he felt the electricity run through him. It wasn't enough to kill him, but enough to torture him. "What is this plan yuo so much talk about?" said Vlad, floating next to Dan and in front of Danny.

"I came to make a deal" Danny gasped while he tried to at least get back on his feet and not lying on the floor, but the most he could manage was to stay balanced on his knees before them.

"A deal? Ha! And what opssible would we want from you?" said Vlad, mockingly.

"Me." Okay, they didn't see that coming. They shared confused looks with each other trying to understand what kind of trick was this. "I know you want to get revenge on me, so I came here, on my own, to surrender to you and let you do as you want with me." Danny explained, gasping for air for the rope was too tight and he couldn't breathe.

"And what exactly do you want in exchange?" Asked Dan.

"In order for you to have me, you need to swear on your life that you'll leave Amity Park and its citizen alone, even if those citizens leave the city. I know how you work Vlad, so I'll be very specific. You cannot go near Amity Park in a perimeter of five hundred feet, not even from the sky, and you can't touch its citizens even if they ever leave the town. I have a list on my bag with the names of every person living there right now, and I synchronized the computized registration to your mail account, so you'll know exactly who are the newborns, the ones who get their driver liscence, the ones who get married, the ones who divorce, the ones who die. And you can't neer, ever, get near Jack, Maddie and Jazz Fenton, Tucker Floey and his family and Samantha Manson and her family as well as everyone's offspring. That's the price to pay for me. And I know Clockwork knows about this, what am I saying, he may be watching us right now since wherever he is in the ghost zone, so he'll be my whitness. Deal?" Danny said tired, feeling how he would lose consciouisness any time now.

Vlad and Dan exchanged glances and turned around to deliberate. They took their time expecting that Danny would lose consciousness before the deal was sealed... no such luck. "We decided that is a favorable deal to us, so yeah, it's a deal."

Danny smiled softly "Untie me, please," they hesitated but in the end agreed and untied him. "Give me your hands" he asked and again they reluctantly gave them. Then, Danny raised his arms with all his might and shook both hands, Vlad's and Dan's at the same time. The moment their hands touched, a soft and warm green glow appeared between them and it, kind of, glued the hands, sealing the deal.

After a few seconds, the glow vanished and they could separate their hands again. Danny knew it had been a manifestation of Clockwork and smiled before passing out right there in front of them. The deal made something weird happen to Vlad and Dan, as they felt they couldn't dissobey the deal or they would be in much trouble; it was as if the deal they sealed wasn't with Danny Fenton/Phantom, but with Fate itself.

They took the boy inside to Vlad's lab, and tied him to the table. They decided to would wait until he woke up because if they had their revenge with him asleep it wouldn't made sense. Or that's what they thought.

That night, a few hours later than Danny's deal with Vlad and Dan, his family was still unknown of his whereabouts, Sam finally woke up. It was almost midnight when they recieved a call from Sam's mother. She was crying, so at first they thought Sam had died; until they heard on the phone 'Samantha is awake!'

They hurriedly went to the hospital and found the Foley's were already there, with her, in the room. "I'm telling you, I'm fine!" Sam kept yelling her parents, "Now, please, get me out of here and take me home."

"Don't worry sweetheart," her father said assuringly "Tomorrow, by noon, you'll already be home." He was strocking her hair softly while Sam sighed in relief. When she saw the Fentons enter the room her eyes brighten up, until she realized Danny wasn't with them.

"Where's Danny?" she asked concerned. She knew very well that she never got to see the end of the fight with Skulker, so she feared the worst, but his parents looked fine. Jazz too. If something had happened to Danny they were very good at hiding it, or nothing happened. But if nothing happened, why wasn't he here with her? Was he mad that she touched the cage? Was he depressed thinking she might not survive? Did he not want to see her?

The last one made her heart almost break in two, and that's when she decided to stop making conclusions or she would hurt herself, she would hurt her heart. Still, nobody looked at her and her parents seemed as shocked as her. "I'm going to repeat the question, and I expect an answer" she said, her voice trembling, her eyes filling with tears "Where is my boyfriend, Daniel Fenton?"

No one dared to look at her, so she feared the worst, again, letting her tears fall from her eyes. "Tell me, please... I need to know," Sam pleaded to them. Finally, Tucker raised her head and told the Fentons to get out of the room, as well as her parents. Sam knew that this meant bad news, that not even Danny's parents knew about.

When they were all out, Tucker neared a chair to Sam's bed and sat there, putting his hand above her. She was getting nervous by the minute. "Sam, Danny's gone."

Sam knew in her heart that he would say something like that, although she refused to believe it. "Gone? Gone? What do you mean by 'gone'?" she asked, trying to control herself.

"When you were unconscious a few hours ago, Clockwork came to Danny and told him something. Apparently, it looks like Vlad came back to Earth and stole the thermos containign Dan. Clockwork warned Danny that they migh want their revenge by attacking you, or any of us. We went to his house and he told me to go to his room with him. There he started packing some stuff and said he would leave to find clues about Vlad's whereabouts to try and stop him. He said he would never let Vald near Amity Park again."

Sam was stunned at this, still, in her mind she still though 'This is so like Danny'. "And he just left like that? Does his parents know?"

"What I just told you is what his parents know, but I have another theory and it's not pretty. He told me to give you a note if he didn't came back in five days, which seemed suspicious because why would he write a note in the first place if he was going to come back and I would have explained the situation to you? He also said goodbye to me with a hug, and you now Danny never hugs unless it's serious."

"What's your point?" said Sam, fearing the answer which she already knew in the back of her mind.

"I think Danny left to give himself up to Vlad. I don't think he is ever coming back to us, and if he does, he won't be the Danny we know anymore."

Sam's heart fell to her toes and her stomach rose to her throat. She did her best not to throw up then and there adn tried to clear her thoughts."Why don't you tell his parents? Why did you let him leave in the first place?" Sam yelled at Tucker mad and tears streaming down her cheecks.

"I wanted to convince him out of this, but he was so determined to do it, and looked so desperate and worried, I couldn't do anything to stop him. Besides, I said it's my theory, maybe he is really planning on coming back."

Sam rolled her eyes "Please, Tucker, we both know Danny and his stupid hero complex. He left for good to protect the town from Vlad, and he will never come back." Sam said hiding her head in her knees and crying there for she didn't want Tucker to see her so broken.

"You're wrong." They hears a voice and looked to the door. Both turned their heads to see who was and discovered Jazz standing there with a very confident expression.

"How long have you been there?" Tucker said sruprised.

"How do you now, Jazz? How can you say that? He obviously thought the town was worth it and left us here to screw up ourselves!" Sam yelled hurt. She couldn't believe Danny chose the town over her; she could bet he didn't even visit her once.

"I've been here enough to hear the whole conversation and Sam, I can tell because he is my brother. He didn't left to proect the town, he left to protect you. When he found you in the cage unconscious, his world crumbled down. I was watching him all the time and he couldn't forgive himself for letting you get hurt. So when Clockwork told him you were in danger, he didn't want to risk it. He left to protect you from Vlad's revenge against him."

As Jazz revelation sank into Sam's head she realized it made sense. It was so like Danny to do something like that, why didn't she see that? She couldn't believe she ever doubted him, but still, for her it hurt. "He left without saying goodbye..." Sam said slowly as tears came back to her eyes again. This time, Jazz and Tucker hugged her tightly until Sam finally calmed down again.

**So, what do you guys think? Was it good? What do you think will happen next?**

**Please review! Adn Thank you for reading it.**


	3. THE TRUTH

**Me: So how do you like the story so far?**

**Danny: It's fine, except for the part that I'm in the hands of, not onw, but two lunatics!**

**Me: Don't worry, I'll get you out of this.**

**Danny: Yeah, right.**

**Me: You know I can, it's my story after all. So shut up while I greet my readers!**

**Hello! I'm back with another chapter of this story called Dan's Fury! Don't kill me if I take my time, I still have another story to write. So, thank all the readers, subscripters and, so far, the only person who has reviwed! Yay! A bigg applause for all of you!**

**Now, enjoy! And review!**

Danny woke up slowly, his head spinning, and it took a while for him to realize that he was pinned down to a table. He was about to rebel and fight against the restraints when he remebered the events of the day before. He sighed when he realized he couldn't do anything, he had made a deal, but it was worthy because Sam would be safe.

Of course he also thought about his family and Tucker's and the town, but if he hadn't been so worried about Sam he wouldn't have gone to Vlad in the first place. She was safe, and he would be living a hell from now on.

Then he heard a noise, more precisely, footsteps. Two pairs. Coming from the stairs. They were Vlad and Dan, who when notice he was awake, and non fighting, exchanged glances with each other. "You know, Daniel, we've been thinking about the deal yuo made with us and reached the conclusion that you never really meant it," Vlad started.

"It was just too weird you coming out of nowhere to offer yourself as a deal," Dan continued "so, why aren't you fighting?"

"You still don't believe, right? I came here to surrender to you, if I break up my part of the deal, then you'll break yours, and I won't let that happen." Danny simply explained.

"So you really don't have a tracker or that stuff your parents build?" Vlad asked again.

"No, they don't know anything. They think I came here to look for clues to stop your 'evel plan' which I don't know if it exists or not. I told them to wait five days for my return, so, if I don't go back they'll come here. That's for sure. But if I'm telling you then it can't be a trap. You can do whatever you want with me, I completely surrender." Danny finished with a sigh and looked at his feet.

"Why are you doing this?" Dan asked, completely clueless. Well, that was obvious because when he was separated from his human half and killed it, well, he still hadn't realized his feelings for Sam.

"It's obvious, isn't it? I'm doing it to keep Sam safe." Danny just said. Dan then started to laugh and had to grab the wall not to fall to the floor. "Seriously? You two?" He said between his laughter, lacking air. When he calmed down, both Vlad and Danny were looking at him strangely. "Don't mind me," he excused himself.

Then, Vlad and Dan, who was serious and evil again, neared the table Danny was in and surrounded it with clones. "Then, Daniel," they all said at the same time "we are having a lot of fun getting rid of you," then and evil laughter flodded the place and a chill ran down Danny's spine, folowed by a loud and painful scream.

Sam had been all the night crying and no one knew what to do to calm her down. A nurse had to come into her room with a needle and put her to sleep. She then went to a deep sleep plagued with nightmares about Danny. When she woke up in the morning she looked as if she hadn't slept in a week. Still, her parents decide to take her home either way and it wasn't 'till she was there that she snapped. But she didn't do it alone, she called Tucker and Jazz to hear her rant about it.

"How could he do this to me? We could've fought Vlad and Dan together! We could... we could..." then she cried again but this time out of anger and frustration. "Why did he leave me? Why? Those two monsters could be doing everything to him right now and he's defensless against them. If he promised something to them, if he made some kind of deal, he's doomed!"

She grabed her pillow and started hitting it with all her rage and sadness. When she grew tired she dropped it and fell into her bed, tears, again, streaming down her face. All of her emotions were mixed, and she was very confused; she didn't know if she wanted to be angry, sad, grateful, depressed... she didn't know what could be her next move.

"Sam, I'm sure he only wants you to be safe." Jazz assured her.

"Tell me again why I cannot go and save him? Tell me again why the hell are we sitting here instead of going where he is to save him? Why?"

"Because he made me promise that I wouldn't let you leave" Jazz told her. "Before he left, even before he spoke with Tucker, in the hospital when we managed to saty alone, he told me what he wanted to do. I opposed too, but he wouldn't listen. He made me promise we wouldn't follow him and that I wouldn't tell anything to my parents until the fifth day. Besides, we don't even know where he is." She explained.

"Well, that's easy. We can go to Wiscounsin and start searching for clues in Vlad's mansion" Sam suggested getting her hopes high, maybe too high.

"We can't, Sam," Tucker sigh in defeat "Danny had it all well planned. See how he told two different people of two different of his plan? He doesn't want to be found, he doesn't want to come back. It may be hard, but he wants to stay with Dan and Vlad. If he didn't he would already be back." Tucker said feeling betrayed by his friend too. Sam though it wasn't hard on them too, but it was.

"So we are not going to fight? We are just going to wait here until his body is delivered to us?"

"We don't have a choice, Sam." Jazz finished the conversation by standing up and leaving Sam's room, followed by Tucker, leaving a very frustrated Sam crying on her bed until sleep welcomed her, again, plagues by dreams that turned into nightmares of Danny.

She dreamt she was flying with him over the city, Danny carrying her bridal style while the sun set in the horizon. Suddenly, Danny started to vanish, letting her fall to the ground with no one to catch her. Then, when she thought she was dead, she saw Dan and Vlad walking towards her with evil grins on their faces carrying a limp body, which she recognized as Danny's. She tried to scream but no sound came from her voice; the ghost and half-ghost in ffront of her neared her with evil grins on their faces and everything went blank.

She was still fighting the ghosts in her dream when her eyes snapped open and she realized it was her father calming her down. She looked at her clock and realized it was four o' clock. "What's wrong sweetheart? You had a bad dream?" Sam slightly nodded. "Want to talk about it?" She shook her head and started to cry in her father arms. Without her realizing it, she told her father everything she felt and thought and accidentally the truth about Danny; and although he prmised not to tell anyone, he sure didn't keep his promise.

Meanwhile, on the Fenton's house, Maddie and Jack sat at the table drinking warm milk to try to get some sleep, which seemed to be running away from them. "So you can't sleep either?" said Jazz from the stairs, starteling her parents.

"How could we sleep knowing your brother is with... with... Vlad Masters?" Jack said, spitting venom when he said the name of his ex-friend.

"I can't sleep thinking he might be injured or something. Vlad could do anything to him and if what you said about that Dan guy, then Danny might even..." she shook her head trying to forget the idea.

Jazz saw how hard it was for his parents, but if they knew Danny would never return, they would rush to try and save him. She had a huge burden on her shoulders, and she was sure her parents were going to resent her for as long as they lived when they found out. In fact, she didn't even know why she was taking so much risk on herself and on her brother; she, who was always the responsible and overprotective sister was now letting her brother surrender to the two most crazy people on Earth. Still, she couldn't get what Danny told her out of her head.

_Flashback:_

"_What is it, Danny?" she asked her brother as he guided both of them into and empty room._

"_I'm going to leave Jazz..." He started, Jazz wanted to say something against it but was cut off by his little brother, "...and before you interrupt me, listen. Sam is in danger, if I wait for Vlad and Dan to find me I'll be puting her in real danger and she might even die. So, I decided that I won't give them a chance to look for me, I'll go to them."_

"_Danny, that's crazy! You can't do that. What about mom, dad, me? Tucker? Sam? What am I supposed to tell her when she waked up?" She tried to talk her brother out of his demented plans with no avail. It looked like he had everything planed._

"_The truth. I don't want her thinking I'm a jerk who abandoned her, I don't want my motives to me a secret. What I need you to do, is convince everyone to stay here; don't follow me, don't try to find me. I'll try to make a deal with them, but if they are suspicious it's a trap they won't trust me, they won't make any deal or worse, they'll break the deal. Can you help me with that? Can you promise me that? That way I can leave in peace, so to say." She couln't believe her brother wanted her to make such a promise, even worse, she couldn't believe she was letting him convince her of his plan._

"_Don't talk like that, Danny, you are not going to die. Why don't we try to find another way to beat them?" She politely suggested, trying to leave the promise for her last resource._

"_When Clockwork came to me, he told me that everything was meant to be this way. He aslo helped me in the past, he saved you, so I'll trust him and I'll trust that I'll get out of this alive. I know he knows what happens and I know he knows how this ends... and I want to think he doesn't want me dead," Danny explained hoping Jazz would understand. He knew it was almost insane to trust in something like that, because he was sure Clockwork would get rid of him if he were a major threat to the time stream. Anyway, he wanted to believe._

"_It's a very risky bet, Danny." Jazz said, thinking of all her options. She was surprised when she found Danny's gaze staring deeply into hers, pleading her to help him._

"_For me it is, Jazz, but I don't really care about myself. I need to know Sam will be safe even if I'm gone; also, I need to know that those monsters won't take it out in all of you and the town. This is something I must do." He said still looking into Jazz eyes._

_Jazz sighed in defeat "Fine, I promise, and a Fenton..." She stared back at Danny while her eyes began to tear knowing what this promise meant. She hugged her brother for what she thought would be the last time and cried on his shoulder._

"_Never breaks a promise." Danny finished the phrase as he also hugged Jazz and cried with her, as this was their way to say goodbye. "Do well in college, graduate, marry, have a family... Live, Jazz, and please, never forget me."_

"_Never" she repeated as they stood hugging each other, not wanting to let go and not wanting the moment to finish._

_End Flashback_

As she remebered she was watching her parents, worried over his son who was never planing on coming back. She supressed her tears and gulped the knot in her throat. Then, the phone rang. "Who could it be at this time?" Maddie said tiredly as she picked up the phone.

Sam and Jack stared curiosuly at Maddie, wishing to know who was the person calling. "Good evening, Mr. Manson... no, we weren't sleeping... yeah, you know, with Danny gone it's hard to find some sleep... what did you say?..." Maddie gasped as she put the phone on the table and put it in speaker "Can you repeat that again, Mr. Manson? You are on the speaker phone and Jazz and Jack are listening."

"Well... first of all, hello, I'm sorry to bother you so late at night. You nkow my daughter Sam is very... attatched... to your son Danny; well, since he's been gone to his misson she has been having trouble sleeping and nightmares. Tonight was no exception, so I went into her room to comfort her. She said something about your son, and I think you should know. Remember in the hospital whe he told us that Vlad masters and his evil self Dan Phantom were back to get revenge on him? Well, Samantha believes that your son, in order to protect the town, left to surrender himself to this two ghosts... well, one half ghost."

Jazz eyes widened when she heard Sam's dad on the phone. This would screw everything, she had to convince them now that there was no such thing and that Danny would come back... why? To tell them later that it had been true and that Danny wouldn't return? She faced an internal dilemma which kept her inside her thoughts.

Meantime, out of Jazz's head, Maddie and Jack were getting all the possible clues.

"Mr. Manson, those are pretty heavy arguments, why do you say that our son may not ever come back?" Jack asked concerned.

"Because my daughter also told me that Tucker Foley and Jasmine, yes, your daughter, convinced her not to follow nor help Daniel in any way because that would mess up your son's plan. She was very frustrated she couldn't help his... b-b-b-boyfriend."

At the mention of her name, Jazz turned her head to face her two very mad parents in front. "Well, thank you Mr. Manson; we'll take it from here," Maddie said. Mr. Manson said goodbye and hung up; Maddie hung up too.

"So, Jazz, when were you going to tell us your little brother was never coming home again?" Maddie asked Jazz while looking into the teenager eyes. She could see her daughter didn't know how to act or what to say and Jazz could say she had managed to wake the sleeping dragon inside of her with her lies.

"Mom, Dad, I can explain..." Jazz started.

"Well, then start now." Jack cut her out.

"Well..." Jazz started but didn't know where to start.

In Tucker's house, said boy slept as peacefully as can be when tha life of his best friend is in danger, but still, he was managing well. That was until the furious ring of his phone woke him up. Still half asleep he checked the caller ID and it read "Sam" in big letters, which he thought it was weird at first... actually, no, it was quite common to be woken up in the middle of the night by his friend to go help Danny when he was in trouble.

He answered whilst trying to fully wake up, which didn't take long after she heard what Sam had to say. "You what?" he yelled at the phone. "It doesn't matter how bad you feel, Sam, you cannot go telling your folks what Danny, Jazz and I trsuted you, even when it puts Danny in danger. After all, it was his decision, who are we to meddle in?"

Sam spoke a little more on the phone. "Sam, you can't believe the promise your father made. Right now, he should be calling the Fentons, who at the same time, are thinking of ways to kill Jazz. Don't you see what wil happen right now? If Danny made a deal and by our actions is broken we will all be in danger... No, of course I care about Danny, he is my best friend. How would I not care? But he is stubborn, and he rather die than live knowing that he caused someone's dead; especially if its someone he knows... If he changed his mind I'm sure he can take on Vlad and Dan on his own... why don't you trust him? Why don't you trust me? We trusted you, and you told your dad!... No, Sam, I'm going to bed now because I'm tired and you should too; tomorrow we can disscuss everything and see how we deal with things... yes, good night."

He hung up the phone and fell to his bed. How could Sam do this? He would never admit it, but he was actually scared of his and his family well being, and that's why he agreed with Danny. It's the selfish side we all have inside of us, and if it had been a threat only to him, he may have fought to get his friend back, but by no means he wanted his parents to get involved in anything that had to do with ghosts. They better stay out of the radar.

Jazz's parents would ground her for sure too, because she was the one to hide it all, and I'm sure she shared Tucker's feelings a bit. The only one who didn't shared that feelings towards her family was because if she had to choose between her family and Danny, she would a thousand times chose Danny. Everyone knew that.

He was drifting off again into sleep when a loud honk was heard outside his window. He looked outside and found the Fentons RV standing right there. "Oh, crap," Tucjer said under his breath "They know everything."

He got dreesed in his casual clothes and got downstaris to go with the Fentons. He had to deal with his parents and the explanation and he told them it was an expedition to find out more about the ghosts and they're way of doing things and living in order to develop more weapons to catch them. They, not knowing half of the real situation, believed it and let him go.

In the RV were Danny's parents, very upset, and Jazz, who was looking to the ground. She had obviously got in bug trouble, well, who wouldn't? Then they went to pick up Sam and took off to Wiscounsin, more precisely, to Vlad's mansion.

But before they arrived, all the way to the mansion, Danny's parents were all the way ranting about how foolish and irresponsable they were to let Danny go alone and that, knowing his plans, they agreed to cover for him for five days, when it would be already too late.

They arrived by dawn, and stopped the car in the bushed not to be seen. They slowly came out of the RV and headed for Vlad's mansion in silence. When they arrived, they found the door open and got in, expecting a trap. Nevertheless, there was none. They looked everywhere but Danny was nowhere to be found, nor Vlad or Dan. The last place to look was the lab, where the Fentons were sure Danny was. They had their weapond ready and arrived to the lab to find it empty.

"It can't be" Sam said tearing "If they're not here, where?" Suddenly, Jazz shrieked, and everyone rushed to her side. On the table in the laboratory there was a pool of blood, mixed with some ectoplasm too. There was too much, nor human or ghost could have survived that amount of loss.

Everyone's horrified expressions couldn't leave the table. "Danny..." Jazz said, letting out her tears for the first time. "This blood must be his, and there's no way he could've survived if he lost this much blood." Her knees failed and she sank to the floor, suddenly unable to move.

Maddie let out a bone chilling cry as she tried to touch the blood, trying to feel her son, but Jack held her on place and hugged her while they both cried. "No, Maddie, don't touch the blood. It isn't your son... it isn't our boy."

The blood was fresh, as if finished a failed and sick surgical procedure at most two hours ago. "We were so close, we could've done something... if we had only been faster," this time Tucker talked, refusing to look at the blood and refusing to believe it was his friend's.

Sam couldn't handle the horrifying vission in front of her. On a table a pool of blood. The proof Danny had been here and at the same time the proof he may be already dead. He was gone, and neither the town nor them were hurt, meaning he did make a deal with the monsters. She walked away from everyone, going to the furthest wall, trying to keep herself balanced and conscious. On the wall, pasted, was a note. At first, Sam thought it was from long ago, until the name DANIEL caught her eye. She grabbed it and this is what the note read:

_Dear Fentons:_

_By the time you figure out Daniel is in our grasp, it will already be too late._

_Long story short, in order to protect you and your town, your son surrender to us. We cannot break this deal (as much as we want to) because it's a deal we did with fate._

_Don't ask me how Daniel managed soemthing like that, but anyway, he is with us. If not dead, barely living._

_And, just for the record, you will never see him again. And don't try to find us, because you'd be wasting your time. Of course, I know you'll ignore this and look for us and him either way, but just so you know, it's futile._

_Have a nice day,_

_Vlad Plasmius & Dan Phantom_

Sam let out a loud sob and everyone rushed to her fearing she might have hurt herself, by accident or on purpose. She fell to her knees and held the note tight on her hand, which Tucker managed to take from her and read out loud. They stood there unable to move, crying and mourning.

"I won't give up like this, I need to do something, I need to find them. It's my son!" Maddie cried and left the mansion to call the police, Jack following after. Jazz left with her parents and Tucker stayed with Sam, who was clutching her knees as if life depended on it.

"Sammy" Tucker told her, trying to get her out of there "Sam, please, let's go. It's unly us left here, we need to go."

"Danny is... gone" Sam said as in some kind of trance.

"Sam, we need to be strong. Let's go." Tucker repeated.

"Danny's gone" Sam repeated, this time letting all sadness and frustration out. Tucker called the Fentons back in to help move Sam, who didn't seem to know and/or care about her surroundings. They moved her into the RV whilst Maddie and Jack contacted the police. Jazz and Tucker tried to make Sam react to something, anything, but she wouldn't and they were starting to get really worried.

The only thought Sam had in her mind and was still trying to decode was: Danny is gone.


	4. THE BRAIWASH

**Me: So, do you want to kill me?**

**Danny: Believe me, yes I do, but I'm quite curious on how you are going to fix this.**

**Me: You don't believe I can, do you?**

**Danny: Nope.**

**Me: You'll see I can, just you wait.**

**Hello! I'm back with another chapter here! I won't spoil anything for you, I'll create suspense. What do you think? Do you think Danny is really dead? Or do you think that he will come back? Review please! I DO NOT OWN DANNY PHANTOM.**

A year had passed since Danny left with Dan and Vlad, and Amity Park was helding a ceremony to honor him like they did the year before when the town found out. They had search everywhere for a sign that would lead them to Danny for months before he was declared finally dead.

_Flashback_

"_C'mon, keep moving people! I want a perimeter around the house and every soul alive and dead looking for clues!" said the chief of police, in charge of finding Danny. Some of the ghosts were helping them too, when Tucker and Danny's parents asked them._

_After they left Vlad's mansion Jack called the police while Jazz and Maddie cried with each other in the RV. At the same time, Tucker was trying to get Sam out of her trance to no avail. The police arrived fast and Jack explained the situation as well as he could when his only son could be possibly dead. (A/N: I know there's Jazz too but she is a girl! Duh!) He handed them the note of Vlad and Dan to get clues but it wasn't of much help._

_The police got moving fast. Maddie and Jack asked the police to escort Sam, Tucker and Jazz back to Amity Park, the teenagers didn't refuse. The first one to get home was Sam, and when her parents asked her what was wrong she just passed them by and went to her room. Her parents, worried, asked the cops. They explained everything and they realized why was Sam so upset. Even when they knew, they couldn't do anything to get her out of her room until a week later when they gave her permission to help in the search._

_Next was Tucker, who got home with his head hanging and tears in his eyes. His parents asked him what the problem was and he told them. Danny meant a lot, not only for Tucker, being his best friend, but also for Tucker's parents, as he was like a second son to him. They grew to love him in time and were too really affected by the news, still, remained strong for their son and always supported him._

_Jazz was the last one to get to her house. With her it was different, because she didn't have anyone to greet her nor comfort her. She didn't even bother to turn on the lights and went straight to her room, where she cried until her eyes dried. The next day she went back to her parents and helped them with the search of her brother._

_Jack and Maddie, on the other hand, searched nonstop until their bodied forced them to rest. They slept in the RV but didn't rest. In the morning Jazz joined them, but before they continued the search, they shared a tight hug. They were the most affected by everything, after all, it was their son. Maddie still didn't wrap her mind around the idea that Danny might never come back yet, and Jack was struggling to believe it too. Jazz couldn't help believing it had been somehow her fault, and she knew her parents thought so too, but they'd never tell her._

_After a week or so Danny was declared officially missing and the FBI stepped in to help with the investigation, and after months and months of searching they gave up and declared him dead. His family, however, refused to believe it and continued it more until they realized it was too painful and that it was better to let him go, that he was already gone. That day, the town gather to make a memorial in Danny's honor. It was a very sad day for everyone in Amity Park and even the ghosts attended the memorial._

_End Flashback_

This year, too, a memorial was held for Danny. The ghosts attended too, and the family was dresses in black, such as Sam and Tucker. The ghosts, having mercy for the town, stopped for a while in their attacks, but later realized it made no sense without the ghost boy to fight with. They stopped coming out of the ghost zone eventually.

Sam never got over the whole sitation, and neither did Danny's parents. Tucker was coming out of it with the help of his parents and he was also helping Jazz, for whom he realized he had feelings more than friendship, to stop blaming herself.

The sun was setting and that marked the start of the ceremony. The major stepped out into the podium to give some speeches, then Mr. Lancer and later his parents. As an act of conmemoration they put a placke in the center of the park which read 'IN HONOR OF AMITY PARK'S BRAVEST HERO: DANNY FENTON/PHANTOM.'

However, when they were about to finish the ceremony, a huge blast blew up the placke and everyone raised their heads to the sky. There, stood Danny Phantom, whose eyes instead of being the usual green, were a bright red. He floated down to the ground while everyone's gaze, ghosts and humans, followed him. "So it's true, you all gave up on me!" he yelled, startling everyone.

"Danny..." Maddie gasped, eyes widened "Danny! Is that really you?" She neared her son, tried to touch him, but he pushed her away so strongly that she lost her balance and Jack went forward to catch her.

"Son..." Jack started "What happened to you?" He couldn't believe his eyes; his son in front of him but looking at him with such hatred and resentment.

"You still have to ask? Don't make a fool out of me!" Dann yelled again and was about to shoot again.

"Danny!" Sam screamed and ran forward and hugged him. She was so fast that he didn't even saw it coming; he looked down to Sam and saw her crying.

"S-Sam...?" He asked, more like a question, while his eyes turned blue for an instant before changing back again to red. "No... NO!" He pushed her away while grabbing his head and falling to his knees.

"Danny, what's wrong?" She asked with concern.

"Don't..." he started to say and abruptly rose his head, his eyes full of anger and hate towards her "Don't you ever near me again!" He then proceeded to punch her in the face, still, his fist never reached its destination because Tucker grabed Danny's arm and placed it on his back, unabling him to move.

"Dude, chill out. What happened to you?" Tucker said whilst fighting to keep Danny unable to move, which didn't work well sa Danny became intangible and turned the tables.

"Stop asking what happened to me!" Danny said spitting venom as he put Tucker in the same position he had put him before. Tucker, however, didn't have ghost powers to get away with. "You, all of you, are the ones who left me! You abandoned me! So stop asking what is wrong with me!"

"Danny, stop!" He heard Jazz cry, "You're hurtinig him, this is not like you!"

Danny stared at his sister not believing his ears and seeing in her eyes something he hadn't seen or felt in a long time. Then, realization sank in his head. He chuckled while everyone looked at him as if he had gone nuts. "Seriously? You, my sister, and Tucker, my ex-best friend? You sure fell hard, Jazz." He spat as he tossed Tucker to the ground.

Jazz was quickly by his side, nursing Tucker's arm after the strong grip of Danny. "I didn't change," Danny said under his breath, however, as everything and everyone was silent, it was as clear as uf he had used a microphone. "I was_ forced_ to change because_ you_ left me alone. And now, you pretend you actually _cared_ with this hypocrite memorial held in _my_ name. Please, don't try to fool me."

Danny finished his speech and started floating away. "Ha! You even invited the ghosts who tried to kill me more than once, how nice. Take this as a warning, for I'll be back and the next time I do I'll burn to the ashes this place which I used to call _home_; even if you're in it."

Then, he flew away fast. Immediately after, the ghosts coming out of their shock chased after him. The people of the town slowly returned to their homes leaving only Maddie, Jack, Jazz, Tucker and Sam. Maddie was crying into Jack's embrace, Jazz into Tucker's as well as she could considering that Tucker could barely move his arm from the pain, and Sam just sat there in shock. Not even crying anymore, because she couldn't find her tears.

Soon, the ghosts came back. Ember, Skulker, Technus, the Box Ghost, Desiree, among other surrounded the family. "We couldn't catch up with him, he was too fast," Skulker declared with everyone else nodding in agreement.

"What happened to him?" Ember dropped the question into the air, followed by a heavy silence.

"He's not Danny" Sam mutered after a while and everyone turned to look at her. "He is not the Danny we know, or else he'd never do something like this. Did you see his eyes? They were red."

"I saw his eyes turning blue for a moment too," Tucker added, still hurt not only on his arm, but also on his heart when he saw his best friend being that kind of Jerk. "Then they quickly turned back to red."

"Remember he went with Vlad and Dan," Jazz said, whiping away her tears or at least trying to. "They're the ones who caused this."

"However, whatever they did to Danny doesn't matter now," Jack said while standing up, trying to look strong while his heart ached with those words. "Right now, he threatened us and our town, so we need to pretect it at all costs."

"But he's our son!" Maddie cried while standing up too. "We can't just try to kill him!"

"We don't have to kill him," Jazz said rising her hopes high. "We just need to stop him for a moment, capture him, and try to get him back."

"We could try that" Sam agreed. She was getting her hopes too high, and the heartbreak would be twice as unbereable if the plan didn't work out. It hurt her seeing Danny trying to hurt her; he was definitely changed. Slowly, rage and hatred started to fill her heart as she swore on her mind to make Vlad and Dan pay for making _her _Danny that way.

Danny flew fast across the clouds heading to Wiscounsin. 'Those traitors, hypocrite people who never loved me. They just wanted me to protect the town, but when there was nothing to protect it from they just kicked me out and abandoned me. I'll make sure they suffer the same I did.'

Then, the memory of Sam clinging to him, her scent, the look on her eyes, everything made him remeber some actual good times, before everything happened, and he couldn't help but say her name out loud. After that all the memories of the horrible things she did to him came back and he pushed her; filled with rage, he wanted to hit her, but then his old "friend" Tucker had to step in.

What a fool he was for trying to contain Danny as a ghost and he soon turned the tables. He was really going to crush Tucker's arms, but Jazz stopped him. She had in her eyes such concern, worry and fright. She was frightened of Danny and scared of what he would to Tucker, but, why would she care so much for him if they never were really close. Because they had something more than friendship. Rage invaded Danny, but he did his best not to show it and to seem indeferent. When he returned to Amity Park he would take care of those two for good.

Then his parents, the very same parents that were the first to kick him out of the house and convinced the town to kick him out too. The very same parents who were ghost hunters and that thought it was a good idea to test every invention of theirs in Danny. Maybe that's the reason they kicked him out in the first place, because he denied to be their guinea pig any longer.

Whatever their reason was they had no right to do it in the first place. The only thing he could do was go to Vlad for comfort and shelter; he didn't refuse. In fact, the past year he had been a greater father than his biologicall one. Then, when Dan came back seeking revenge on Danny, Vlad stepped out for him, protected him, and convinced Dan to forget about the revenge. In the end, Dan wind up joining their small "family" and Danny realized he wasn't such a bad guy, he just was misunderstood by the people.

The three of them lived well until Danny found out a newspaper where it said about the memorial that'd be held in his name, and the blood boiled up inside him. Vlad and Dan tried to talk him out of it, but Danny needed to get his revenge on the hypocrites who claimed to miss him. That's pretty much his story in the past year, but, is it true? Or was it implanted on his memory?

He got to Vlad's mansion right before Dawn, because he flew a little without a define direction. When he entered the house, Vlad was waiting for him. He saw how upset Danny was and followed him to his room and talked with him.

"So, Daniel, how did it go?" Vlad asked slowly.

"How it's supposed to be. At least now they know I'm still alive... They're all... such a..." Despite how much he wanted to curse the people in that town, he couldn't bring himself to do it. After all, he lived there most of his life and they used to love him. Slowly, tears leaked out of his eyes and fell into the bed.

Vlad turned the stereo on and put on a CD of some classical strange music. "Just relax, Daniel, and tried to sleep. Later we'll all talk about it, when you've calmed down." He left the room and closed the door behind him, an evil smirk appearing on his face replacing the "compassive" look he was wearing before.

He went to the lab, where Dan was waiting for him. "So, how was it?" Dan asked.

"It couldn't have been more perfect. He is so affected by the situation, so hurt inside. I told you that seeing his town and his family would only make his suffering deeper. Now he's in his room with one of the CD's we taped for him."

"I have to recognize your plan of brainwashing the kid was brilliant. If we can't get near Amity Park, if we can't destroy it and its people, then let's have him do it for us," Dan chuckled evily.

"And when everything's over, when he killed the last one of his friends and family, we'll tell him the truth. That everything was a lie and that he killed the family he loved so much," Vlad continued as he laughed loudly.

"Shh! If you wake him up now and finds us here then everything we did the last year goes to waste."

"Don't worry, right now he is so devastated..." Vlad faked to be depressed to mock Danny in front of Dan, who laughed in response. "He will fall asleep listening to that CD and when he wakes up his hate and anger will be so great that he will want to get rid of that insignificant town tonight!"

Both of them forgot about discretion and started to laugh loudly agian, celebrating their triumph over Danny Fenton and their final revenge against him.

Back on Amity Park, Sam stood up all night thinking about Danny's sudden comeback and how changed he was. Hadn't she see it, she wouldn't have believe it. I was so not Danny that attitude, that rage, that hatred. Surely Vlad was behind everything.

She hadn't left her room since she got back from the failed memorial. She wasn't crying, for she knew Danny was alive and could still be safe; but she couldn't stop thinking of how and what did Vlad and Dan did to Danny to change him so much.

She felt so hurt when Danny tried to hit her; Danny, who touched her with such delicacy as if she were a rose, reason for which she got mad at him many times before when they started dating. He needed to learn that Sam could protect herself, she wasn't a weaklink. Still, compared to the way he treated her on the memorial, she'd rather have the Danny who treated her like a porcelain doll.

This Danny, she was sure of it, would never hesitate to kill her and the whole town if they didn't do something fast, because his warning was that the next time he came, he would be destroying everything.

On Tucker's house, he laid on the couch. His head on Jazz's lap, his armed cover in bandages. He couldn't stop thinking about Danny's red eyes. That looked at him with hatred, that wanted to kill him.

He looked at Jazz, who was lost in thought probably thinking the same thing about Danny than he was.

"Jazz, do you think we'll get Danny back? Our Danny, I mean, the one with blue eyes," he asked her, pulling her out of her mind.

"I don't know, Tuck," she replied. "Danny's mind... someone really messed it up, and I'm sure it was Vlad and Dan woriking together. But, whatever they did to him, I fear it might be irreversible. If we base on what we know, they already have a year screwing his brain."

Tucker sighed, followe by Jazz who also yawned. "You should get some sleep. Your parents are already working on something to protect the town and we must be rested for when... Danny comes back," Tucker had real trouble trying to wrap around his head the idea of the new Danny who wanted to destroy and nothing else.

"Yeah, maybe I should. But you should too."

"I have an idea. How about we both go to sleep." Tucker suggested, smiling weakly.

"May I stay here, I don't want to be a nuisance to my parents. And if they work all night on it I'll feel really alone. So, can I stay over."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. You can use the guest room, so, shall we go to sleep now?" Tucker said stainding up and offering his hand to Jazz.

"Of course, my very sweet gentelman." She replied kissing his cheek. You know? Even after all they time they spent together, and despite they were much too close to be friends, Tucker stil wasn't brave enough as to ask her out.

They went upstairs, each one to their rooms, and they went sleep, although didn't rest as their dream was plagued with nightmares.

Danny woke up with a headache and feeling dizzy. He didn't quite remeber the events of the night before as it felt like a blur to him, his eyes were blue once again. He examined the room he was in: it looked expensive, the walls were of a light blue and there was a big window to his left. He neared it and looked outside, his eyes widened as he recognized that place.

The door slowly open and there appeared Vlad "So, Daniel, how are you feeling today?" He asked putting his mask on once again. Little did he know Danny wasn't in his trance.

"Are you... taking care of me?" Danny asked, fearing the answer.

"Well, of course I am..." Vlad's voice faded as he looked into the halfa's eyes. They were blue, not red.

"Why?" Danny asked, confused. He didn't remember anything, and what he did remeber was confused and he didn't understand the memory.

Vlad sighed in relief as he read the confusion in the boys face, disimulating it. "You hit your head, your parents are downstairs," he lied.

"Really?" Danny asked, not trusting Vlad.

"Yes, come down stairs." Vlad opened the door widened to let him pass. He pushed a button hidden in his sleeve, activating a silent alarm that went to Dan's wrist watch, one Vlad made especially for him, and that was meant to be for cases like that.

Dan, in the lab, became intangible as Vlad and Danny came in. "So, where are my parents?" Danny asked, turning around to face Vlad.

"Right here," Vald said and before Danny could react he shooted an ecto-ray at him that threw him to the wall.

"Somehow I knew it was a lie," Danny muttered, trying to catch his breath. "And somehow, I know I can't fight him... because..." The events of the last year and last night flashedin front of him, even what he did to the twon while under the influence of the brainwash, and he realized why he couldn't fight Vlad: he made a deal.

Then, Dan turned visible and tangible again, grabbed Danny, and tied him the table in the lab. "I should have known you'd pull a stunt like this" Danny said, worry and anger in his voice.

"Oh, don't worry, we'll just put you to sleep now, and when you wake up you won't remeber any of this. Instead you will wake up remembering how mean your town was to you, which will make you want to kill everyone. We won't oppose and you'll destroy everything you fought so hard to protect." Dan said mockingly to Danny, who couldn't believe he did something like what happened last night.

"It won't work, I snapped out of it once and I can do it again!" Danny yelled desperate, not really believing his own words.

"Not if we triple the dosis we gave you last time," Vlad added and put a helmet on Danny's head while Dan left to some machines to his right.

"You," Danny mutered before yelling, again. "We had a deal!"

"The deal was that neither Dan nor I could get near amity park and, or, hurt its population. The deal didn't said anything about you being the one destroying it," Vlad said and laughed at his marvelous plan.

"It won't work" Danny said under his breath.

"Can you bet on that?" Vlad whispered in response before signaling to Dan to activate the machine. Once activated, Danny fell his headache increase tenfold while wronged images of his family, friends and town did to him. Dan left the machine on for four hours before turning the power down, leaving an unconscious Danny on the table. Vlad then put some CD on different stereos, like three at a time, and left to let the CD's have the desired effect.

An hour or so later, Danny woke up in his room again with a headache and feeling dizzy; but this time, his eyes were a flashing red.


	5. THE RETURN

**Danny: I'll kill you!**

**Me: It's not that bad, I'll fix it.**

**Danny: You said that last and all you did was make me harm my friends! I'll kill you!**

**Me: Well, kill me, but everything will stay the same then.**

**Danny: ...**

**Me: Exactly, you're in my hands now *laughs evily***

**Hello everyone! I'm glad you like the story so far and thank you everyone who follow, favorited and/or reviewed the story. Now, let's continue with the story, AND FOR THE THOUSAND TIME I DO NOT OWN DANNY PHANTOM. I just own this plot =P**

"How could they do this to me? I protected their town for four years! I'm going to kill them, every single soul in Amity Park is going to die tonight and they won't even become ghosts because there will be nothing left of them! I swear." Danny yelles angrily pacing the foor on his room back and forth furiously.

Then, a knock on the door and Vlad popped his head. "Hello, Daniel, how are you feeling?"

"How am I supposed to be feeling? I was betrayed in the most horrible way. I'm going to make them pay!" Danny replies.

"Don't you think that's a little harsh?" Vlad sugested playing the good guy, again.

"And what about what they've done to me? Of course you wouldn't understand!" Danny yelled again angrily as he turned ghost and flew to the window. "Don't wait for me awake, I might not come until tomorrow..." he said to Vlad "...until I've wiped out that town of existance," he finished under his breath not wanting Vlad to listen the last part.

"Okay, but don't do anything yuo might regret in the future." Vlad said as he left Danny's room with an evil grin on his face and turned to Dan, who was behind him.

"So? How did it go?" Dan asked.

"Perfect, he has absolutely no doubt about anything we inserted into his mind. He now went to destroy his own town. Do you think we should supervise he does well his job?" Vlad asked mockingly.

"Well, of course. I wouldn't want to miss any of it," Dan replied as his eyes darkened and an evil smile crept on his face too. Vlad went ghost and both of them flew out of the house, following Danny closely but not enough to be detected.

Maddie sighed as she and her husband finally finished the gigantic shield against ghosts that would be surrounding the town. Tucker and Sam had formed an alliance with the ghosts to help get Danny back, and they would be surrounding the shield to stop Danny. Just then the phone rang and Jazz ran to answer it. In less than a second she was down with her parents again. "It's Tucker; he says Danny is coming this way already, and he's fast."

Hearing this, Jack quickly activated the shield and the ghosts got to their positions. When Danny arrived, he wasn't surprised bythe welcome he got and his anger just grew. "So you now show your true colors, huh? I thought you missed me and loved me yesterday; what a bunch of lies!"

"Stop it, whelp," Skulker spoke first of all the ghosts. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah! Why don't you just listen to us!" Ember yelled after Skulker.

"How nice; the ghosts who tried to kill me every time they saw me are now defending the town they fisrt wanted to destroy. Really?" Danny said sarcastically.

"Danny!" Yelled a female voice from the ground. It was Sam on the other side of the shield, protected. "Please, listen to us! This isn't you!"

"No, I won't. You said you want me back and all, but you're hiding behind the stupid shield my own parents build to keep me out!" Danny said to lure her out. She would be the first one to die.

"Fine! I'll go out! But promise me you'll listen to me." Sam pleaded.

"I promise," Danny said, knowing he wasn't really going to listen to what she said. Sam slowly came out of the shield until she was fully out and held her hands high as a surrender sign, better as a peace offer. Danny jerked down and stopped incher from her face, making her flinch. "I'm all ears," he said.

"Danny, look at your eyes in a mirror. Do you remember their true color? This isn't like you at all. Do you remeber what happened? Do you remember why you left?" Sam said, slowly, letting her words sank into his head.

"My eyes were blue, and they turned red after you betrayed me and kicked me out of my town, the one I always protected. I remember, all the people of Amity Park, chasing and shooting me with ecto-weapons and saying that if I'd ever return you'd kill me; I didn't left on my own," Danny replied, glaring intensly into Sam's eyes with pure hate inside them.

"No, Danny, that's not true. Do you remmeber your last fight with Skulker? Do you remember the electrified cage?" Sam asked, knowing that was a weak point Vlad and Dan couldn't have touched because they didn't know, and she saw it reflected in his eyes, which flickered with confusion for a moment.

"Don't try to fool me with your lies!" Danny said as he grabbed Sam by the neck and lifted her off the ground, don't letting her breathe. She pleaded with her eyes and he recognized that stare. Realizing what he was doing, and watching Sam kick for air, his eyes became blue again and his grip loosened when a strong headache came to him with the force of a thousand volts of electricity.

As strong as the headache was he fell to his knees while gripping his head tightly, begging for the pain to stop. "Don't listen to her! She'd obviously toying with you!" Came a voice behind Danny and everyone gasped when they say Vlad and Dan together.

"You.." Sam said. "What did you do to Danny?" She stood up and ran forward to try and attack them, when she felt someone grab her wrist. She turned her head and saw Danny's eyes full with anger. He didn't even find it strange for them to be there because of all the brainwash he had a few hours before.

"You stay away from them! They helped me when you didn't, so stay away from them." Danny said and threw Sam to the floor near the shield. Vlad and Dan smiled while they looked at Danny turn againt his own town and stand up for them. Then, Danny let out his ghostly whail with all he strenght he could find.

The whail broke the shield easily, which made Danny giggle evily. He had fallen to his knees for the effort, but was soon up and ready once again. "Now you don't stand a chance, do you?" He said under his breath and started walking towards Amity Park but found in front of him a wall of every ghost that resided in the ghost zone blocking his path.

"Move aside" Danny said as a low growl with the warning in his voice.

"Not until you listen," Said Jazz from behind the ghosts. Danny also saw Sam and Tucker behind too, Tucker trying to calm down a wheping Sam.

"What if I don't want to listen?" Danny said mockingly, knowing there was nothing they could do against him.

"Then we'll have to force some sense into you, son," Jack said as he threw a reinfrorced net to Danny, who didn't see it coming and and was trapped easily in it. He tried to take it off or to phase through but he couldn't, he also found it very painful to toush the net, as it was touching most parts of his body. "Don't try to resist, Danny, it's for your own good."

"What? You trying to rip me apart molecule by molecule?" Danny asked sacrastically.

"We would never hurt you, sweetheart" Maddie added too.

Watching for afar, Dan and Vlad felt their plan falling apart and feared they could undo the brainwash, and tried to step up. But the stupid deal forbid them to get to near, and they immediatly felt an invisible shield they could not pass through. They both gritted their teeth in frustration and watched.

"Don't lie to me," Danny kept arguing with his parents as they pulled the net towards their house, towards the lab.

"What are you going to do now? Toss me in the ghost zone? That's how you plan to get rid of me for good?" Danny asked again, fearing for once what his parents could do to him under the influence of the brainwash.

"Of course not, Danny," Maddie said, deeply hurt by his words. "We are just trying to help you." Then, Jack opened a big glass case with a chair in the middle and Maddie tossed Danny inside, crying silently as she closed the door and locked it.

"You can't do this to me! I'm not a show for everyone to see! Why do you like hurting me?" Danny exclaimed, tears of hate and anger running down his cheeks. His parents looked away while Maddie gestured Jack to activate the casse, which started to glow green.

The case absorbed all of Danny ghost energy and forced him to return to his human form; they were surprised his eyes were still a bright red. Danny, feeling week, fell to the floor on his knees and he couldn't get back up. "Why?" he mutered over and over again.

Soon, a now calmed Sam, Tucker and Jazz also came down to the lab. They stared at Danny, who had managed to sit on the chair and had his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands and discussed what they could do to get their real Danny back.

"Don't talk about me like I'm an experiment. I can still hear," Danny suddenly said with an emotionless voice.

"We're trying to get the real you back," Sam said, slowly, trying not to sound so harsh on him.

"This is the real me!" Danny said jerking up. "This is the result of your betrayal; you made this." He neared the case and threw a punch to the glass, which activated the defense system and glew green, and thus, drained him again. He, suddenly exhausted, fell... again.

"No Danny, this isn't you," Sam said again nearing the case too and touching it from the ouside. She kneeled to be on the same level as Danny and put her hand where his cheek was. Everyone looked at her puzzled, not knowing what was she trying to do. "Danny, look at me," she said soflty. When she recieved no answer, she said again in a more autoritarian way, "Danny, look at me!"

Surprised by the outburst, Danny raised his head and found a pair of amethyst eyes crying. "Why are you crying?" He asked, forgetting for a moment his current situation with his eyes locked on Sam's.

"Because I'm happy... but at the same time I'm sad," Sam started smiling lightly at him, which puzzled him too. "I'm happy because you're back, because you're alive..." her smile faded, "but I'm sad because you forgot who you really are."

Danny sent her a confused look. "But you were the one who..."

"What? What did I do to you that you hate me so much now?" Sma said, trusting that she was touching nerves and memories that had remain untouched by Vlad and Dan.

"You... you..." Danny said hesitantly, trying to remeber what she did to him, looking for the reason he hated her so much, but he couldn't find anything. She hadn't done anything. Instead, he found himself remembering her smile, her eyes, her voice, her laughter, her kisses. A piercing pain drilled through his brain, making him grab his head tightly with his hands and breaking the eye contact.

What was happening to him? He didn't know. Everyone in the lab, his parents, Jazz and Tucker rushed forward to the case to see what was happening to Danny, but Sam told them to stop and to back off. She knew what she was doing because she did the same when they were outside, only that then it had been a slip pf her tongue. "Danny, keep looking at me. I know it hurts, but try to look at me again." She knew where to touch, metaphorically speaking, to trigger the memoried she wanted him to remember.

Danny, not even knowing why, raised his head and did what she told him. Then, Sam could see Danny's eyes were flickering from red to blue and then back to red again. She had the power to save his Danny, and his Danny was fighting against himself. She knew she would get him back.

"That's right, keep looking at me," Sam said in a soothing tone. "Now, think, what did Tucker do to you so that you hate him so much?"

"He..." Danny said, fighting against the pain with greeted teeth. "He's dating my sister."

"No, well, kind of, but you realized that yesterday. What did he do before dating Jazz to make you hate him so much?" Sam tried to speek clearly and paused, not to confuse Danny more than he already was.

"He... he..." Danny spaced out again thinking of the reason he hated Tucker. It was true he was mad at him for dating Jazz, but as Sam said, he didn't know of that until the day before. So he dug up deeper in his mind, in his memories, and he again found pleasing memoried instead of bad memoried. He, as well as Sam, didn't do anything to him. He actually saved his life a couple of times.

Realizing that about Tucker made the pain worse, almost unbearable for him, and Sam noticed that his eyes were flickering again between red and blue, but mostly of blue. He was coming back. "You see? We didn't do anything to you, we are your friends. Your best friends." This triggered more memories of them together inside Danny's mind, making the pain even worse. But little did he know, that the pain would only keep increasing. Danny was forced again to break the eye contact.

Sam let the effect sank into Danny's mind before continuing with the questions. "Now, remeber Jazz, what did she do to you? And don't say that she's dating Tucker. Before that, what did she do?" Sam let the words sank in even if they weren't making any eye contact and saw the desired effect: his blank expression telling her that he was remembering followed by Danny gripping his head and screaming in pain.

She couldn't bear seeing him in such pain, it was like mutual torture; but it was something necessary for her Danny to return. She swalowed the knot in her throat and wiped some lonely tears off her face, trying to look strong for him. If her resolved faded even for a second, all the progress could go to waste.

"Danny, look at me again please," Sam said, and looked how Danny strugled to obey her. "That's good, you're doing good. The pain will be over soon, I promise. Now, please, I need you to remember what did your parents do to you."

Danny did his best effort to talk despite the pain. "They... kicked me out... of the town. I was sleeping... and they came to my room... my dad grabbed me by the... neck of the... shirt while mom... pointed an ecto-gun... at me."

That memory seemed solid, but Sam knew just what answer would break that awful and wronged memory: "When did that happened?"

"When... when..." Danny started to space out and Sam took her chance to add something else to the question, to make it even mor effective.

"I want the date, Danny, which day of which month of what year?" Sam spoke clearly adn with conviction. Such a traumatic event couldn't have left his mind; those kind of things are never forgotten. And seeing humans are such lovers of pain, the dates are never forgotten either and even commemorated.

Danny again yelled in pain as he didn't know when it had happened, and Sam finally saw the red of his eyes fade. Their eyes still flickered, but now it was mainly because the red wanted to return but couldn't. He, exhausted and with a reminiscence of the headache, looked at Sam's eyes.

"S-S-Sammy..." He whispered in recognition before passing out inside the case.

Sam gasped in awe and finally let the tears she had been helding until then. "I'm so sorry Danny, but it's going to be okay now, don't worry," she cried softly trying to tug at the crystal. The rest of them gathered around her, saw Danny passed out and Sam cried and jumped to silly conclusions.

"Sam, what happened? What did you do?"

"Is my son okay? Is he going to be okay?"

"What happened to him? Answer us!"

"Please, Sam, what did you do?"

Sam, being bombraded with questions, pissed off. "Shut up! Just, please, for a minute, SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" She wiped her tears and took some deep, well needed, breaths whilst everyone look astonished at her, then, she stood up and faced them. "Now, Danny is okay, he just passed out. When we were outside, when he tried to... ch-ch-choke me... I saw recognition in his eyes and he let go of me to grip his head, which seemed to be hurting. That's when I realized Vlad and Dan had messed directly with his brain, but had left some memories untouched. What I did now was ask him stuff, stuff I had a hunch had not being modified, stuff that simply couldn't have been modified."

"And did it worrk?" Maddie said apprhensively.

"Well... just a second ago he recognized me, he called me Sammy, and his eyes were blue again. But then he passed out and I just don't know if he'll wake up bad again," Sam replied, tearing again and hugging herself.

"Now it's up to him, Sam. Let's trust him," Tucker told her and hugged her. Sam felt awkward, but needing the hug, she returned it and cried more. She had tortured Danny in an awful way, and she'd never forgive herself if it had been in vain.


	6. THE FIGHT

**Me: I told you I'd fix this, didn't I?**

**Danny: Well... yeah.. whatever, you still screw up first.**

**Me: I didn't screw up, I knew exactly what I was doing. I know, what I'm doing.**

**Danny: Aren't you just improvising as the story goes?**

**Me: *gasp* Of course not! How could you say that?**

**Danny: 'Cause that's what I think.**

**Me: Well, then tell me, do you think I should write a tragic ending? Meaning: someone dies?**

**Danny: ...**

**Me: That's what I thought.**

**Hello again! I really hope you're liking the story so far and thanks to everyone who has read, rivewed and/or favorited/followed me or my story. Thank you! Don't stop reviewing. Now, here's the next chapter.**

While Danny was being interrogated by Sam down in the Fenton's lab, the ghosts were fighting Dan and Vlad to stay away and not to try anything. "We're not letting you get to the ghost boy," Skulker said and then added, just to seem tough, "he is my prey."

"And since when are you Danny's protectors? He made a deal with us, so he has to come out!" Dan roared in anger as he tried for the thousand time to get into the forbidden perimeter by the deal, but he just couldn't. "Why can't we pass? He broke his part of the deal!"

"Oh, and you didn't break yours?" Ember said in disgust to Vlad and Dan. "You are such rats."

"You little..." Vlad started but was interrupted by a blue flash of light that blinded them all. When everyone could see, they were surprised to find that even Clockwork had stepped in.

"The deal said nothing about Danny being held against his will, so he hasn't break anything." Clockwork said in favor of Danny.

"So you were the witness after all! I though he had fooled us there," Dan mocked.

"I was surprised at the moment too, but I had seen it coming. You know? I know everything... even before it happens." Clockwork said while shifting from an elder to a child, then to a middle aged man, and went back to the elder. Both, Dan and Vlad growled in anger and frustration.

In the Fenton's lab, after being interrogated and tortured, Danny had passes out. Through his very weak hearing he heard Sam explaining to his parents everything and also heard Tucker's last comment to Sam: Now it's up to him. Let's trust him.

They trusted him, even after all he did. They still trusted in him. They hadn't kicked him out of nowhere, he left to offer Vlad and Dan a deal to protect Sam and Amity Park's citizens, but they had abused of that deal and made something much more worse than actually breaking their part. They forced Danny to attack the persons he wanted to protect by brainwash.

He slowly faded into unconsciousness, with that last comment engraved in his mind. He was determined to wake up as the same Danny he always was, not the brainwashed version of him. He wasn't going to hurt Sam in any other way than he already did, and he would make her proud of what she just did. Even when it hurt him like hell.

Into his subconscious, though, there was someone else who also wanted to take over. It was the younger version of Dan, without merging with Vlad, and above all, it was his brainwashed verison who only felt hate. "So we meet again, Danny," he said with an evil grin on his face.

"Who are you?" Danny asked, overwhelmed to see his dark side. He just couldn't believe it.

"Who else? I'm you," Evil Danny said giggling.

"That's not possible; I'm nothing like you!" Danny yelled.

"Oh, we're more alike than what you think. I'm that part of you you've always suppresed; the part of you who hates and helds grudges against the people who have harmed you. I had always been weak, but after Vlad and Dan's masterfull job I became strong enough to overcome you," Evil Danny explained.

"So... you're saying, that if I want to wake up being me, and not you, I must defeat you first, am I right?" Danny asked, still a little confused.

"Well, you can try to defeat me, but you won't be able to do it," Evil Danny affirmed.

"And why not?" Danny asked.

"Here, inside your mind, there are no ghost powers. And you know, that deep inside, you are who you are because of them. I, on the other hand, am a lot more stronger than you without them."

"Let's see about that" Danny said as he sprinted forward, but Evil Danny just moved aside.

"You are weak, Danny, face it already. Without your ghost powers you are nothing. Even the closest people to you are still with you because of them. If someone else was Phantom, everyone would have run with him. Even you."

"That't not true..." Danny said without much conviction. "They love me for me."

"How can you say that?" Evil Danny asked, knowing he would slowly win over the good Danny if he kept bombarding with questions him like this. His resolve would fail.

"Because I saw it in their eyes. I saw it in Sam's eyes."

"Sam? You still think that she loves you? She just loves the fame that comes with being the girlfriend of Danny Phantom, savior of the world. See? You are recognized as Danny Phantom, not even Fenton anymore," Evil Danny chuckled and grinned evily.

"No, it's not true. Sam loves me just like I love her..." Danny asured again, losing his conviction with every word the Evil Danny said. Suddeny, a voice ringed through all the darkness. It was Tucker's, and he was repeating the same over and over again; 'Now it's up to him, Sam. Let's trust him.'

Somehow, Danny knew it was a projection of his own, but listening it to it reassured him that theye still trusted him and were waiting for him at home. He felt his conviciont rising again, but he couldn't let Evil Danny guess that, so he stood still like before.

"I bet when you wake up they will kick you out for real for what you've don, and they won't think it trwice," Evil Danny was still blabbering about how he wasn't loved by anyone and stuff. Then, it was Danny's turn to conunter attack, the same way Evil Danny had done it with him.

"But you still remember the feeling of everyone cheering for you, right? So what if they know me by Danny Phantom ot Fenton, they're both me. Thus, they're both you." Evil Danny looked stunned by that comeback and was left without words and Danny took this chance to keep on talking.

"You remeber what we felt when we kissed Sam for the first time? It was a kiss full of hope. You see how I'm talking? I'm talking in plural, includinig both of us, because we are a whole. Two sides of the same coin. So, when you talk about me being not loved and rejected, then that means you are rejected too. I can't do anything without you and you can't do anything without me."

"I-I guess you could say that..." Evil Danny said, now his resolve flickering.

"You are afraid of acknowledging me because then you'd dissapear. But that's not true, we can't be sepparated. I, on the other hand, accept you. I now accept you. I accept myself as a human being, half ghost, that like every other person makes mistakes, have dreams and feelings and is afraid sometimes. That's why I am going to defeat you. That's what maked me stronger than you. Because even when I not always make the correct choice, I always try to choose what's best for everyone and not only me."

Danny finished his speech feeling proud of himself, knowing that whatever Evil Danny said to him wouldn't affect him because he knew that Evil Danny was reflecting himself in those words full of venom. Slowly, Danny saw Evil Danny fading little by little, first his feet and rising.

"Well, as bad as I can be, as dark as I can be, I know when to admit defeat. You've won, Daniel, but if I ever see your resolve fading, then I'll take over you forever. Keep that warning in mind and, as hard as it is to say it, make us proud of oursleves," Evil Danny addmited and after that he completly vanished. Well, not completely, for he was still in the back of his mind; but he was weak, and he wouldn't show up any other time soon.

As he felt his own subconscious, his own mind again his, the dark started to clear out and condenced itself in a corner, in the form of a door, while the rest of the 'place' **(A/N: let's call it that. I know it's not a place, it's inside his mind, but I don't know any workd to match that description.)** turned a pure white. When that process was completed, he felt himself waking up.

Danny opened his eyes and saw a blinding white light above him. For a moment he thought he was dead until he heard whispering around him. He turned his head and saw his family, Tucker and Sam scattered around the lab as if waiting for something. Their backs were towards him, so he couldn't see their faces, but he could bet that Sam was wheeping quietly in the farthest corner of the lab, Jazz was sleeping in Tuckers lap, Maddie and Jack were talking quietly... Wait! Jazz sleeping in Tucker's lap!

He stood up fast to try and see better because it had to be a mistake, but maybe it was a little too fast. He felt immediately dizzy and fell to the floor with a loud thud, causing everyone to turn and look at him. He realized then he was in a really weird case, and he couldn't remember how he got there.

"Danny! You're awake!" He heard Sam said and run towards the glass of the case, where she put her hand. Danny still had his head down trying to recover fromthe dizzines and he could swear he felt the air stiffening around him and the tension could be cut with a pair of sissors. He slowly raised his head to look why had the air became so thick, and he realized it was because of him as soon as everyone sighed in relief when his head was up. "You're back..." Sam said in a whisper only Danny could hear and tears stremed down her face.

"Sam..." he said as what he saw sank into his mind. "Sam! Why are you crying? Are you hurt?"

When he said that, he saw Sam get up and run so fast to the door of the case. She opened it and lunged forward to hug him and repeated in his neck: "You're back." He awkwardly returned the hug as he had no idea why was Sam reacting like that and crying. Then his gaze fell upon everyone's faces, which also had tears on them.

"What the hell is wrong with all of you?" Danny blurted out and saw everyone jump in surprise. Even Jazz was awake already, "and why were you sleeping in Tucker's lap?" he added directly to her.

She, however, replied something very different. "You.. dont' remember anything... do you?"

"What should I remeber?" Danny said shrugging with indeference.

Maddie and Jack rushed forward to their son. "What did you do yesterday?" they said almost at the same time.

"Yesterday..." Danny spaced out trying to remeber, but all he could manage was some scenes of them crying and some blasts under a red blur that covered every memory. "I... don't quite know. It was bad, wasn't it?"

"It's nothing that can't be fixed sweetie," Maddie told him, putting her hand on his cheek. Slowly, Danny stood up and Sam too, and they both got out of the case holding hands. When they were out, Jazz immediately hugged Danny and cried softly on his shoulder. When they parted, Tucker came and gave Danny a 'manly' hug.

After a little while, Danny sighed. "Guys, this is a touching reunion and all, but I have to go. I... I made a deal with Vlad and Dan to keep you safe, so I need to go now... wait, why am I here in the first place?" Danny said and spaced out looking for why he was back in Amity Park. He remebered the day when Vlad told him his parents where downstairs and then... then...

Danny gasped in horror as he realized what had really happened. Even when he did't remeber exactly what he did, he remeber what Vlad told him and that was enough to kow why was he back in Amity Park: he tried to destroy it. Danny, ashamed and angry separated from Sam, who was hugging him, and turned his back on them. "Danny, don't worry, we're fine," she said to try and caml him down.

"Fine? Fine? I tried to kill you..." Danny complained.

"But you didn't, we stopped you," Tucker also said.

"I'm sorry," Danny said as he turned ghost and flew out of the house. He was furious at Dan and Vlad for doing what they did to him. What he was going to do was going to break the deal, he knew that, but he would fight for his family, for his town... and for Sam. He went to where Vlad, Dan and the ghosts were fighting, and he was sure to remain where they couldn't near him.

The ghosts, seeing Danny apporach, retreated inside the territory Vlad and Dan couldn't pass. Both of them looked furiously at the teenager whose eyes were back to a frluorescent green. "So they reverted your brain, huh? That doesn't change the fact we made a deal, so come here," Dan growled, his eyes redder than ever before.

"Why should I keep my part of the deal when you broke yours?" Danny asked, furious.

"We didn't break anything, what we did wasn't part of the deal!" Vlad defended himself.

"You are such a rats," Danny spat, "You did worse than break your part! You tried to make my do your dirty work, and there's no guarantee that if I go back to you, you won't that or any other new trickery again."

"What are you saying?" Dan looked at him confused.

"I'm saying that, from now on, the deal is broken." As on cue, everyone could feel a great pressure being released from the air and it felt light again. Trying to see for themselves, Dan and Vlad slowly neared the wall of ghosts and found out, that indeed, the deal had been broken. In that moment, hell broke lose.

"Skulker! Please keep an eye on my family, keep them safe!" Danny yelled and skulker left as a bullet to Fenton Works.

"Daniel, don't be naive, we are far more powerful than any of you together," Vlad mocked.

"We? That doesn't sounds right," Dan replied and shoot an ecto-ray from his hands to Vlad, knocking him unconscious and transforming back to human. "The only reason I stayed with him for the last year was because of your stupid deal. We needed to work together to find the best way to get rid off you, but now that we're free from that, I can work solo again," he said followed by an evil laugh.

"I can't believe you..." Danny said under his breath while everyone was left without words by the sudden betrayal from Dan to Vlad.

"Well, you better," Dan replied and lunged forward to attack Danny directly. At the same time, he replicated himself so that none would interfere with his revenge. "You see? All the time I was in that stupid thermos of yours I dreamed of the day I'd kill you, and that day is finally here."

"Don't be too full of yourself, I've grown stronger than before," Danny replied while blocking and dodging the attacks Dan was shooting at him.

"I still have ten more years of experience than you," Dan stated, which was true. Danny knew he was at the disadvantage in that situation. "You shouldn't have broken the deal, for I am going to destroy everything and everyone you love, let you witness unable to anything, and finally, i'll kill you slowly and painfully."

Hearing that, Danny's eyes widened in fear for his family, but soon composed himself before letting Dan notice.

On the ground, Vlad was startin to wake up. "Stupid ghost... I'll make sure to kill him after I finish Daniel off," he whispered and opened his eyes. He found Ember and Desire staring down at him, and he was too weak to even tranform. The girls took him, wrapped him with a ghost proof rope, and sucked him into the thermos.

"One down, one to go," Ember said and laughed before they took off to battle again.

Meanwhile, down in the lab Skulker was explaining everything to Danny's family, along with Tucker and Sam, obviously. "We need to get out and help him!" Sam cried out but Skulker just shook his head.

"I'm afraid I won't let you leave the house, in order to protect you. Wow, I never thought I'd be saying that, but anyway, you can't leave. In any case Dan comes here, then you're allowed to fight, but you won't go out," Skulker said not really believing the situation he was in at that moment.

Sam grunted in frustration but Tucker put a hand on her soulder to calm her down. "Fine, I'll stay," she said crossing her arms and frowning. When Tucker knew there wasn't danger of leaving Sam alone, she went with Jazz to a corner and they soot there talking too close for comfort. "You know you'll have to explain that to Danny, right? And if he doesn't blew your head yesterday, he will when you tell him," Sam mocked from the other side of the room, making sure they heard every word. They blushed. "Now who are the lovebirds?" She asked to herself and laughed.

Soon, back outside, Valerie also came to help defeat Dan. **(A/N: I know I took a while to put her in the story, I'm sorry!)** She was too, as everybody else, ver affected by Danny's disapearance; and even when she did tried to kill Phantom in the past, Danny Fenton was a good friend of her. She was surprised when she saw the evil version of grown up Danny, and Dan'r reaction was of surprise too.

"Well, well well, look who's here? Long time no see, Valerie," he told her making her gasp in surprise.

"Who are you and how do you know my name?" She replied on her board.

"They didn't told you about me? That's rude. But well, I am Danny." He said teasing her, knowing how she'd react to it.

"That's not true, yuo can't be him!" She defended.

"But it is. Ten years from now, in a dark future, Danny separates from me and I merge with Plasmius. I remember how you tried uselessly to defeat me, Red Huntress," he continued.

"Cut that act out, I will never turn into you!" Danny yelled from his own fight. "Valerie! Don't listen to him, I'll explain everything later, just don't listen!" A ghost ray sent by the original Dan hit him in the shoulder and flew straight to a wall.

"Danny!" Valerie yelled going to help him, but a green lash that came from the Dan she was facing grabbed her by the ancle and held her in place.

"Not so fast, Huntress, your fight is with me," Dan said and pulled the lash along with Valerie, who now was hanging upside down.

"I won't go down so easily, Phantom," she said under her breath while an ecto-weapon came from the sleeve of her suit and pointed to the lash, cutting it and relasing her into the air. Still, sa fast as she was, she did some flips and landed on her feet. **(A/N: They weren't very high anyway.)**

Valerie was shooting at him with her differents weapons, but neither had effect on him because, either he dodge, or became intangible, or did one of his many different tricks."This is going to be fun," said Dan nearing Valerie with a very evil grin on his face while corning her to a wall.


	7. THE HURT

**Danny: Okay, all my fears came true. You are completely out of your mind.**

**Me: Hey! Why would you say that?**

**Danny: Are you seriously asking that?**

**Me: Yes!**

**Danny: I won't tell you.**

**Me: Tell me! Stop teasing.**

**Danny: Never *sticks tounge out***

**Well, here I am again! What did you think of Valerie's appearance? I nkow I took a lot to add her in the story, but I seriously forgot about her. Anyway, she's here now, let's hope things get better. I DO NOT OWN DANNY PHANTOM, JUST THIS PLOT!**

Valerie watched as Dan came closer and how ineffective every weapon was against him. She backed off until she was stopped by a wall, she was cornered and if she didn't do anything she'd die soon. Her hand flew to one of her many pockets but Dan caught it and raised it. The grip was so hard that Valerie comlpained and she even was a few feet above the ground.

When Dan was about to release the fatal blow, one of many clones of him stumbled upon the one holding Valerie and both of them dissapear, but at the same time, releasing her and making her fall directly to the ground at an alarming speed. She wouldn't have time to call for her board. She shut her eyes tightly and waited for death, she waited to feel the cold and hard concrete below as she fell, but it never came.

She slowly opened her eyes and realized she was in a very cool motorcycle driving in mid air. She then looked to the driver, and it was none other that Jhonny 13. "You okay?" he asked.

"Ye- yeah," she asked still stunned. He gently drive them to the street and she got off from the motorcycle. "Thank you... for saving me," she said, blushing a bit.

"No problem, now try to get out of troubles and help us out," he asked and left. Soon, a very angry Kitty came down and stood in front of Valerie with a very angy face.

"If you ever come any closer to my Jhonny, you are going to regret it," Kitty said while poking her in the shoulder and then took off to battle again.

"Wow, a ghost can actually feel jealous," she muttered and then she went to batle again herself.

On the other side of the battlefield, Danny saw how Vlerie was about to die twice, and felt so useless that he couldn't help her. But he also saw how Jhonny saved her and let out a sigh of relief. "Don't get your guard down, I'm your opponent," the real Dan told him, shoot and Danny could barely dodge. "If you keep distrcting yourself over nothing I'm going to kill you quite easily," Dan mocked.

"Unless you, I worry about the lives of the people you are trying to destroy," Danny replied and shoot and ectoplasm ray at Dan, who couldn't dodge it and hit him right on the chest.

"You are paying for that, Fenton!" Dan growled.

"You know? I think you are growing old," Danny mocked Dan while shooting again. He thought for once that the battle didn't need to be so hard.

"Don't get too full of yourself, I haven't even started," Dan said as he called all his clones back to his body and prepared to launch a larger attack.

"May I go upstairs, at least? Where there are windows?" Sam asked Skulker, who was alert blocking every possible entrance to the lab.

"No, I put some traps there for anyone who tries to tresspass," Skilker replied coldly.

"So?" Sam insisted.

"It's a no," Skulker repeated again, annoyed, winning a glare and growl from Sam, who just went to her corner to sit back down.

"I just want to know if Danny's okay, I'm worried," Sam said to herself while wiping a few tears off her eyes before they could actually fall.

Tucker stood up from his comfortable position with Jazz on her lap as soon as she fell asleep again. He gently lifter her head and put it softly on the floor and neared Sam. "Hey" he said softly, stratling her, "

"How are you?"

Sam wiped some more tears. "How do you think? For a year I though my boyfriend was dead, then he came back and tried to kill me because he was brainwashed or something. And even after all that, I still had to torture him to get him back so that he went outside to start a full fledge war against his evil and older other self. And I don't even get to help him while he may die out there... I know nothing about him, I don't know if he's hurt, if he's... if he's..." Sam tried to mantain her facade but it was useles. She was just so overwhelmed by so many different emotions at a time, so she hid her face in her knees while hugging them.

She was happy Danny was alive and back, she was worried he was battling against Dan, she felt guilty for what she had to do to bring him back, she was angry at Vlad and Dan for doing such a low trickery, she was mad at Danny too because he left without saying goodbye and made everyone worry for so long...

She didn't know what she wanted to feel, to do. She was so lost with all those emotions inside of her, she thought she might explode any minute. She felt Tucker's hand on her shoulder, reassuring her, but she only wanted for Danny to be okay and with her. She couldn't bear to lose him again and to do all the grieving thing again, it would be too much.

"Sam, we need to be strong. Everythings going to be okay," Tucker said, trying to calm her down.

"I've remained strong for the last year, trying to keep up the facade because my parents grew tired of me grieving. I stood trong when Danny came back and tried to kill us. I stood strong while I was torturing him to bring his old self back. I've just been too strong, and that's what is killing me! Tucker, what if things go wrong?" Sam said, expressing all her selfish emotions and doubts at the same time. "I just want everything to go back to the way it was."

"I know it's hard, Sam, but we need to believe in him. We..."

"We what, Tucker? We are trapped here and we can't help him! The last time we believed in him he came back and tried to wipe us away!" Sam said, maybe too loud, and everyone turned to see her. She blushed from embarasament and hide her face again.

"We only have that, Sam, if we don't believe in something, we'll fall apart," Tucker said, hurt by Sam's words that somehow were true.

"Don't you get it Tucker?" Sam said still with her face hidden, "I already fell apart; the moment I was in the hospital and you told me he wouldn't come back. A very different thing is that I did my best to hide it."

"Sam, I... I don't know what else to say to you... to make you feel better..." Tucker said and started to walk away.

"The only thing that can make me feel better right now is Danny," Sam whispered and wiped some of the tears uselessly as they kept flowing. Suddenly, a big explosion was heard outside and eveybody jerked up immediatly. Sam's eyes widened in fear, not knowing what happened and not having any windows to see.

Catching Skulker off guard, she ran upstairs and took a peek in the nearest window. As far as she could see, there was only dust. Then, in the distance, she spotted a figure in the ground. It was a boy, black hair, jeans and a t-shirt. It was Danny.

Without any warning, and without asking for permission, she dodged all the traps Skulker put and ran outside, leaving eveyone else inside and yelling at her to come back. But she woulnd't listen, she wasn't listening. All she could see and cared about was Danny, and he was uncosncious on the floor. She didn't see, though, Dan nearing Danny with a green fist ready to finish him off.

Nevertheless, Sam let herself fall on top of Danny when she finally realized what was waiting for him. At her gentle touch, Danny moaned in pain and moved a bit under her. He slowly opened his eyes and when he saw Sam his eyes widened in horror and surprise. "Sam, what are you doing? Go back to the house," he managed to tell her while Dan looked at him confused.

"No," Sam spoke clearly. "I'm not losing you again; if you die I die with you. Wether you like it or not."

"How sweet," Dan mocked. "What a cheap version of Romeo and Juliet you're trying to pull off. I remind you it ends with both lovers dying, and this won't be any difference," he threatened as he neared the couple on the floor. "I'll have the grat honor to end both of your lives!" he yelled and lighted up his fist with green ectoplasm, ready to shoot any moment now.

Danny, knowing he was too weak to do anything, tried to pull Sam away but she just looked him in the eyes and he knew she wouldn't move away. In resignation, he hugged Sam closer with tears in his eyes. Sam, feeling the end near, leaned in and kiss Danny for what she thought would be the last time as silent tears ran down her cheeks.

However, the kiss didn't last long. The closed their eyes when they heard a huge blast, although they didn't felt any pain or impact at all. They both thought if that was what dying felt like, but didn't voice the question; instead, they opened their eyes and were surprised to see Jack and Maddie in front of them each with and ecto-bazooka.

At the same time, Tucker came from behind them with Jazz and helped both of them up. Danny leaned on Tucker as he was too weak and hurt to stand on his own. "You're not dying on us, dude. Neither of you," he said, glaring at Sam, who looked down to the floor knowing she had done wrong.

Much to her surprise, she felt Danny hold her by the waist and pulling her close to him. He whispered just for her to hear. "You are in so much trouble for what you just did... but I honestly missed your kisses," he said and giggled, making Sam smile a bit.

"I'm sorry Danny... I just..." Sam started

"Don't apologize Sam, not now. We'll talk later," Danny replied with a serious face.

"More than we'll scowl you later," Tucker corrected much to Sam's annoyance. But she couldn't blame him, after all, what she did was impulsive and they could've really died if it weren't for Danny's parents. Sam was just too caught up in the moment, but she remembered what she saw in Danny's pleading eyes. He wasn't crying because it was the end, he was crying because he didn't want her to die and she just was too selfish to step aside and let him die alone.

Slowly, Jazz, Tucker, Sam and Danny headed back to Fenton works to let Danny rest a bit and cure him too. They knew his healing abilities were doing their job, but he neaded to rest for them to be more effective. "Mr. And Mrs. Fenton, please hold him until we get back," Tucker said, looking back at them.

"Of course! No ghost is going to try and kill our son and be left unpunished," Jack said, never taking his eyes off the figure who was slowly stirring from the impact of their bazookas. "Leave now!"

They didn't need to hear it twice and soon they were back in Danny's house. There, they found Skulker putting more traps in case Dan wanted to interrupt Danny's recovery. They sat him on the couch and when they were settled they all turned to Sam.

"Are you nuts?!" Danny almost yelled. "All I did this last year was to keep you alive. You're the main reason I gave up to them. And now, in less than a minute, you're there with me saying you want to die with me. Seriosuly?" Danny scowled her, surprising everyone, even Skulker who looked up from his work.

"Danny... I..." Sam said trying to rearrange her thought. She knew it had been wrong, but Danny had never yelled at her like that before. Tucker stepped up, much to everyone's relief.

"Danny, calm down a bit. I know what you're feeling, but yelling doesn't fix anything," Tucker said to him who just crossed his arms over his chest and pouted like a kid. "And for you Sam, do yuo have any idea how we felt when we saw you run upstairs? When we saw you run outside? My stomach went up to my throat. I thought you knew better than that. I understand you are confused and overwhelmed by all your emotions, but you need to keep cold and think with your brain!"

"I know I did wrong!" Sam said, standing up. "I know it was reckless and impulsive, but you have no idea what I've been through this year. What I let you see is the tip of the iceberg, so don't come and say you understand because you don't," she said to Tucker and then turned to Danny, lettig her rage consume her. The rage for him leaving like that. "And do yu think it was easy? Do you thik that this last year I've been in paradise? You left, you left me without even saying goodbye and everything I had left of you was a stupid note and tons of pictures! Do you even nkow how I felt? Do you even considered how would I feel if you left? No, you didn't. You though that the best way to protect me was leaving, but I'm sure that if you had waited and talked to me, talked to us, we would have found a better solution. But no, you have to play hero all the time," Sam finished panting heavily, tears running down her face as she let out many of the things she had been holding back until then.

"Sam, I... " Danny started his counter attack, but was cut off by Sam's finger.

"I don't want to hear it, Danny. You're going to say you wanted to protect me, you won't apologize for it, you didn't want me to get hurt... but think about this, can you protect me from myself?" Sam asked, not yelling anymore, but in a dead serious tone.

"You don't mean..." Jazz said as her eyes and everyone's widened in realization.

"Yes, I mean suicide, killing myself. You don't know how many times I considered that option because the pain was just too unbearable; still I didn't do it because I still have a little hope on you being alive. But imagine that I didn't, imagine that I killed myself and when you came back you found a grave instead of me. What would you have done?" Sam let the question hang in the air. Nobody wanted to answer it because they didn't even want to imagine that scenario. "You can't always be the hero, Danny," she said as she headed to the stairs.

"Wait!" Skulker yelled "You can't go upstairs, I just put a lot of traps there."

Sam nodded and headed, instead, to the lab. Jazz and Tucker let her go, they knew she needed time to herself and that the only one who needed to talk to her in that moment was Danny. He, on the other hand, wanted so badly to follow her, hug her, kiss her; he wanted to make her feel better, but he was too weak to even stand on his own two feet.

"I didn't know," Danny whispered, making everyone's gazes turn to him. He saw Tucker was about to say something but he cut him off. "Don't say anything, please." And eveyone stayed silent.

Outside, Maddie and Jack, alongside Valerie and the other ghosts, were struggling to keep Dan contained. Dan was just so powerful, and his constant mockings and insults to them weren't helping very much. What kept them going was the thought of Danny and that as long as he recovered his strength he would help them in battle.

They were working together, as a team, which is a very rare sight. But it was happening; they weren't attacking on their own, but synchronized perfectly so that Dan didn't have time to create clones or launch too powerful attacks.

Valerie shoot Dan in the gut, but he blocked it. Still, when he was distracted, Maddie shoot with the bazooka to his blind point and he couldn't defend himself. They were all too coordinated, perfectly coordinated, and they were doing fine at keeping him contained. But they knew they needed Danny to completely finish him off.

Down on the lab in Fenton Works, Sam was cuddled in a corner. She couldn't believe she actually said that stuff. It was hers, her secrets, her thoughts, and in an impulssive moment he had let everything out. Now everybody had seen her true colors, the ones she tried to disimulate so that her parents wouldn't lock her up in a shrink. She couldn't believe she had even confessed about her suicidal thoughts, her darkest secret.

Nevertheless, she didn't regret it. She was glad that they finally knew how she really felt inside; she was just so tired of them saying "I undertand how you feel," and such becuase it was all a lie. They didn't understand anything. There was a reason she was a Goth, and that part of her didn't hesitate to show up as soon as something bad happened.

She heard slow footsepts coming down the stairs and she hugged herself more to try and merge with the wall. However, it didn't work. Soon a hand was placed on her shoulder, but she refused to turn her head. She already knew who it belonged to. "Sammy," Danny said slowly.

"Go away," was her only reply.

"Sam, I'm not going to apologize..." Danny started, trying not to sound too rough and sitting down next to her because his legs were still too weak.

"Save it, I already know that," Sam cut him off.

"No, listen to me," Danny said as he put his hand on Sam's chin and forced her to look at him. "I'm not going to apologize for leaving, because I did it because I thought it was the best way to protect you. Nevertheless, I still owe you an apology for making you feel so bad. I honestly didn't know and I never thought you'd react like that. I should have waited for you to wake up and tell you, but I was too coward to face you, adn for that I apologize. Maybe, if I had waited, it would have been easier on you."

"Maybe, but we'll never know," Sam whispered and dropped her gaze because she didn't want to look into his worried eyes any longer. Seeing what she did, Danny let go of her chin and she lowered it, making her hair hide her face.

"Will you ever forgive me, Sam?" He asked, lookinhg down too feeling bad for making Sam feel bad.

His apologize, still, took Sam by surprise as she expected a leture. "I...- I don't know Danny," she said really confused. She didn't know what to do. If she forgave him then everything would go back to the way it was, or so she hoped, but there were still so many things unsaid that she feared that if she forgave him she would never tell them. "I need to think things through."

Danny was taken aback by her reply. He knew he had hurt her beyon repair, but trusted that she would forgive him if he properly apologized. "I understand," he replied trying to hide the pain in his voice. Danny, suddenly feeling very weak, stayed there with her. Both were silent, lost on their own thoughts. Danny's body was about to finish to cure itself, and after that he'd wait another two minutes to get his complete strenght back so that he would put up some fight. Soon, he'd go back to fight Dan, and he let his head filled with strategies and ways to attack his weak point, putting aside his problems with Sam. He would think of a way to solve them later, when everything was over and back to normal.


	8. THE HERO

**Danny: Why did you want Sam to have suicidal thought?**

**Sam: Yeah, why did you want me to kill myself?**

**Me: Whoa! When did you get here?**

**Danny: I just brought her. I thought she should know about your crazy story.**

**Sam: In which I wanted to suicide!**

**Me: You never did, so what are you complaining about?**

**Sam: Duh! I don't want to die!**

**Me: Either way, just go along with it.**

**Hello everybody! I'm back with another chapter! I'm sorry I took so long to update, but I just got back to high school and I just didn't have time. Even now I should be going to sleep if I want to survive the morning, but I'm still here. XD Enjoy! R&R!**

When Danny recovered himself completely he stood up, filling a little sore, but the feeling would go away as soon as the battle started again. He looked to Sam, who had fallen asleep in the crouched position against the wall. Her face wasn't looking to him, but he had noticed because of her suddenly relaxed position instead of the tense one before.

He stroked her hair lightly, trying not to wake her up. He kneeled to see her face and saw the marks that the tears had left on her face, which were black because of her eyeliner. He picked her up bridal style, so soflty so that she wouldn't wake up, and transformed. He phased themselves through the ceeling and was greeted by the alarmed faces of Tucker and Jazz.

"Don't worry, she's just sleeping," Danny explained to calm them down as they sighed in relief. "Skulker, may I take her upstairs to a bedroom?"

"Better lay her on the couch or something, above there are many traps; and if they can accidentaly be activated by a human, you would activate them all," was Skulker's dry replied.

"Fine," Danny said and layed her softly on the couch. "I'll go now, to finish Dan once and for all."

"You know? If she wakes up and doesn't find you here by then, she'll freak out," Tucker commented.

"I'll take that risk, but if I don't go now Dan may overwhelm my parents, so I have to go;" Danny replied.

"Danny, I've been thinking about what Sam said, and I think she's right: you can't be the hero all the time," Jazz said in concern.

"But if I don't protect you, who will? I care about the town, but the main reason I've endured everything up until now is you guys."

"Well, just be careful," Jazz responded and Danny nodded. He then repaired on Jazz's and Tucker's hands together.

"When I get back, we'll talk about... that;" Danny said pointing to their hands before flying off. He didn't know if he had to feel happy, angry, sad, furious, or what about her sister and Tucker together; but right then, it was just awkward.

Outside, things were barely managable, and his parents and the ghosts whouldn't be able to hold on much longer. The first to see him was Desire. "So the ghost boy is finally here. Would you mind giving us a hand instead of spacing out like an idiot?" Danny smirked and launched to attack Dan.

Dan hadn't see Danny arrive, so his punch took him completely off guard. With Danny back, they had already won. With Dan outnumbered and their perfectly sync movements, Danny just had to do the final blow. He charged his hands with a huge amount of ectoplasm, and prepared to end his evil half once and for all

Ember shot at him a punch with her guitar, Undergrowth covered him in plants and tied his limbs up so that Danny could have a good aim, Danny's parents used the spector deflector to stop him from using his intangibility, and finally, with one last blow of ectoplasm on his hands, Danny prepared to shoot him and end him.

"I don't think you want to kill me just yet," Dan said with a grin.

"And why would that be? You are nothing but trouble!" Danny replied.

"Because I won't die;" Dan simply said.

"Yeah, I know, I can still turn into you bla bla bla. Don't you have a more convincing speech?"

"How about 'I am not the real Dan and the real one is dealing with your friends right this moment;" Dan said mockingly.

"No, it can't be..." Danny said but trailed off as a loud scream came from Fenton Works.

"Really?" Said Dan's clone and vanished, making everyone gasp in horror. It was true, after all. As soon as he was gone, Danny headed to his house, but he didn't have to get inside at all, as the real Dan phased through the roof and neared him with an evil, victorious, grin on his face. But he wasn't alone. He had his hands busy with a body: Sam's.

"Well, well, well, it seems that you felt right for it," Dan laughed and shoot at Danny. He, completely alert, made a shield appear. Still, he didn't dare to shoot because of Sam in Dan's arms.

"What have you done to her?! Let her go!" Danny yelled, furious, rage consuming him and also uselessness: he could do nothing to save her or himself.

"Nothing yet, she is just unconscious. But if you want, I can make sure she never wakes up again."

"Why you...!" Danny charged ectoplasm in his hand.

"No, Danny, what are you doing?" Dan said mockingly as he held Sam before him, making her stand and imitating her voice, supposedly, and made her move like a lifeless puppet. "Why do you want to shoot me? I love you! Please, stay with me. If you don't I might kill myself." That confirmed Danny's greatest fear: Dan was listening to everything and observing him all the time, just to find his weakness and grab an opportunity to take it.

Danny lowered his hand but growled in rage and frustration. "That's better," Dan said getting serious after seeing his reaction.

"What do you want to let her go?" Danny said in a serious but 'calm' tone.

"Well, for instance, your head. Why do you want to save her anyway? If I'm still going to wipe out this town and kill its people." Danny stayed silent; he knew Dan would never understand the meaning of love, so he didn't bother to explain him. Dan stretched out his arm holding Sam by the back of her neck, si that she was facing him. "What would happen if I let her fall?"

Danny tensed and growled, again, while making a face. Then suddenly, from behind Dan came a huge blast and he could see Jazz and Tucker on the operation center of the house and Skulker flying and shooting towards Dan. Danny didn't know if be grateful or desperate or angry. One of the shoots went to Dan's arm, the one holding out Sam, and in a sudden reflex he let her go. Dan tried to lurge forward and to grab her again because he didn't want to lose his hostage. **(A/N: Was that really the reason? That's up to you ;) )**

However, he found Skulker and all the other ghosts, who had caught up to him, surrounding him and avoiding his escape. "Now, whelp, go save her. We can handle him," Skulker assured Danny, who flew as fast as he could to Sam and caught her right before her head hit the ground. He flew her to the, relative, safety of his house.

He phased thorugh the ceeling above his room and placed her softly on his bed. She was really paled and looked in pain. Then, Danny repaired in two bite-like holes on Sam's neck, with dry blood all around it. He was shocked. Dan had bitten Sam, that's how he left her unconscious. He clenched his fists in anger and saw Sam getting paler by the moment, a frown on her face growing and growing. She seemed to be having some kind of nightmare because she started crying.

Danny focused and managed to make one succesful clone, which stayed to guard Sam as he left the house to face Dan again. But when he got outside he found everyone clapping and cheering, and Dan was nowhere to be found. Ember held a Fenton thermos high in her hand, so he figured Dan was there. As much as he was surprised, there were far more important things to care about.

"Danny! We did it! We beat him!" Exclaimed Ember in cheers and smiling happy, but her face as well as everyone else's fell when they saw Danny's expression. He was right about to cry. He didn't explained anything to anyone; he just took the thermos from Ember, quite rudely by the way, and flew to the lab. He released Dan into the case he had been a while ago, which would drain his powers, and contain him long enough for him to tell him what had he done to Sam.

But when Danny saw Dan, he was pretty impresed. His evil half had recieved quite a beating, and was pretty hurt. More convinient to Danny, who just locked the case just when everyone entered the lab; his parents, as well as the ghosts, Tucker and Jazz. "What are you doing?" Jazz exclaimed in horror, but Danny just ignored her.

"Tell me what you did to Sam and how can I save her?!" Danny demanded Dan, who just laughed. "Tell me!" Danny repeated.

"I bit her. And with that, I introduced into her system a powerful poison that will trap her in a world of nightmares while slowly draining her life away. You can't save her," Dan replied as he laughed harder. Danny's face contracted in dispair for a moment, but he built a facade.

"There must be a way to save her, and you should know about it," Danny said.

"Well, maybe there is, maybe not. What makes you think I'll tell you anything?" Dan mocked. Danny, furious, pressed the button of the case that drained ectoplasmic energy. Dan screamed in pain but still held the grin on his face, as all his ectoplasm was dissolved and Dan vanished, leaving in his place some green substance that looked like ectoplasm but wasn't. Danny then opened the case and sucked into the thermos the remainings of his evil self and closed it.

He was about to throw it in frustration, but someone held his hand. It was Tucker. Danny turned to him, and while looking at the sympathetic look on his best friend's face, he broke down and cried. Tucker took the thermos and gave it to Skulker while he told him to do whatever he wanted with it. Tucker stayed to comfort Danny while everyone exited the lab. "Why?" Danny kept moaning into his hands.

"We are going to find a way to saver her, dude," Tcuker reassured him, but Danny just shoved it off. He became intangible and flew towards the room Sam was in. When he saw her he had couldn't help but sob. She was much worse than when he left her there. She was pale as a sheet of paper, her lips were a sick purple, not like the beautiful one she usually uses as a lipstick, and she was shivering non-stop.

He kneeled next to her beside the bed and hold her hand tightly, still crying. She saw the bite marks on her neck. They were swollen and red. Sam was weeping and crying, she was having a nightmare. He remeberd something he knew about snakes: if a snake bit you, the poison was taken out by sucking into the wound. But that was done immediately after the bit, and even though it had been less than five minutes, Danny doubted it would help Sam in any way.

He heard a noise behind him and quickly spun around, ready to defend Sam. Still, there were only hs parents. Danny sighed half relieved, but not relaxed, and told them they could come in. "Do you think you can find a cure if you take her blood samples?"

"Maybe we can, but we don't know how long that'll take or..." his mother hesitated "...how long will it take to the poison to kill her..."

"NO!" Danny shouted "She won't die! I won't let her die..." He grabbed Sam's hand tightly and closed his eyes. "You hear me Sam? You have to fight. You can't die yet. I'm going to save you. I promise."

"You should not do promises you know you can't keep." Said a voice to his right and he turned around just in time to see ClockWork stepping in from the blue portal. Doing a quick survey, Danny realized that time had stopped and that only he could move.

"ClockWork! You've got to help me!" Danny begged, nearing the ghost of time.

"What can I possibly do? I can only control and watch the space-time stream," ClockWork replied, hiding an answer in the question.

"Maybe you can send me back..." ClockWork shook his head, saying no. "Then... maybe you can freeze time around Sam. Just... keep her in a timeless state while I try to find an antidote." Danny was desperate, it was obvious in his voice.

"That I can do, young man, but it's going to be harder to find a cure to a timeless body. If she stays frozen too long, something bad might happen too," ClockWork said, again hiding stuff in the sentence. He neared Sam and enveloped her in a blue bubble, the same color of the portal, which he opened next. "One last warning boy: if you fail to save her, the consequences are going to be severe."

Then, just like he arrived, he left, unfrozing everyone in the moment. "Danny, please, try to calm down. We'll figure out a way to save her... wait... where is she?" Maddie told him, finishing the sentence she started when ClockWork appeared and she was frozen.

"She's in good hands. Now, we need to make an antidote, the fastest, the better" Danny said and walked out of the room to the lab. Somehow, he already had the blood samples of Sam to prepare the antidote. He thanked ClockWork for that.

He arrived fast in the lab, followed by his parents. He soon realized he had failed chemistry and that he had no idea what to do next. He turned to his parents, a bit embarrased. "Please, prepare and antidote. Tell me anything I can help with and I will" he said.

"Don't worry, Danny, leave it to us. You shoukd get some rest because this might take a while" Maddie told him.

"No, I want to help. I need to help... I need to save her..." Danny's voice trailed off. Jack neared her and put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, son, you can help us out in here. Now, let's start working on this" Jack smiled encouragingly to Danny, who did his best to return the smile. He felt a little hopeful, but he was afraid of not accomplishing it on time.

Danny's parents worked the rest of the day and all night. Danny fell asleep halfway on table his parents weren't using. He was crying in his dreams and Maddie wanted to take him upstairs, but Jack claimed that if they couldn't save Sam then Danny'd be much worse.

By dawn they finally got it, but it was a really small dose. It would be a miracle if it worked, but they wouldn't tell that to Danny because he would lose it then. They woke him up softly. Still, he jumped and prepared himself to defend himself, but relaxed when he realized it was only his parents.

"Danny, calm down. We finished the antidote. Go upstairs and eat something, then deliver this to wherever Sam is. We did the best we could and we really hope it helps" Maddie told him.

"Then why does it sounds like you don't think it's going to actually work?" Danny said and grabbed the little bottle containing the antidote. "I can't eat at a time like this, I must save..."

"Stop! Danny, stop! You were gone for a year, and you haven't eaten anything for a few days now. So, please, go upstairs and eat" Jack said and took the bottle. "I'll take care of this for you."

"But dad..." Danny started but was cut off.

"No buts, Danny. We aren't discussing this and you are eating. Now, go" his mother completed.

Danny pouted but left for the kitchen anyway. The more time he wasted arguing, the more time he was losing. He changed into his human form and felt weird. He had been a ghost for too long, and feeling warmth and blood through his veins once again felt a little off for him.

In the kitchen, Jazz was already up and preparing something. "Wow, you look awful" she said, trying to lighten the mood. When she saw it wasn't working, she erased the smile from her face and kept preparing whatever she was going to eat.

Danny, on the other hand, only grabbed a bowl, poured cereal in it and milk. He ate in silence and fast. He needed to leave as soon as possible. Nevertheless, he was surprised to feel the food in his stomach. How long had it been since he last ate? He didn't remember. And being fighting constantly didn't help either.

He finished in less than ten minutes and went down to the lab to his parents. They looked up from the table and handed him the antidote, finally allowing him to go. He went ghost, again, and left for ClockWork's lair.

He tried to fly as fast as he could, but he felt it wasn't enough. He felt he wouldn't reach it in time, and that thought was simply devastating. His nerves were a mess and he wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. He needed to know Sam was going to be okay.

After what seemed like hours, he finally reached his destination: ClockWork's tower. It seemed deserted, even for the time master, it was awfully quiet. Danny's anxiety increased by the second, and he had a knot in the stomach. He felt like throwing up the breakfast he ate, and then he remembered why he thought eating was a bad idea.

He entered the tower and floated up slowly. In the central chamber, he found a glowing blue orb. He found Sam. He neared her, almost not believing his eyes. He stopped just a few feet away. He could see Sam frowning in the same position she was in his house, because after all, time had stopped around her. He wished so desperately to change that expression, to see her eyes... her smile.

"What are you waiting for? An invitation?" Danny jumped at ClockWork's voice behind him.

"N...no, I was just... never mind. How do I give her the antidote? Do you unfreeze her or...?" Danny asked, feeling a bit uncertain about what to do next.

"If I unfreeze her she'll be death before you can even give her the antidote. Give it to me, you might screw up," ClockWork told Danny and handed him his hand. Danny gave him the bottle with a pout.

Then, ClockWork went to sam. He turned his own hand intangible and surrounded it in the same blue orb. The bottle also turned intangible, and in a fast motion, Clockwork put it inside Sam's neck, right where the scars of Dan's teeth were. In that very same motion he got it out, just that this time, the bottle was empty.

Danny could see a stain under Sam's skin: the antidote. It looked like an haematoma, and it wasn't flowing. "Now, when I unfreeze her, the antidote will inmediately start fighting the venom. It will be a long fight for Sam, and I don't assure you she'll wake up immediately. She need to know you are here for her, that will be your better way to help her now. Are you ready?"

Danny gulped the knot that formed on his throat. "Do you think she'll make it?" He asked.

"It's all up to her. That's why you must be here. If she loses her will to live, knowing you're here will help her. Ready?" ClockWork asked and Danny nodded. Then, ClockWork poped the blue orb of light and time around Sam started ticking again.

The haematoma that was the anitdote quicke dissapearead as it started fighting against the venom. Sam was crying and weeping. Danny hated seeing her like that and knowing it was because of him, but he stayed where he was. He kneeled next to Sam and grabbed her hand tightly between his.

"Please, Sam, be strong and come back to me."


	9. THE END

**Danny: So now you got Sam fighting against the venom? Is she even going to make it?**

**Sam: Hey! What does that supposed to mean? Don't you have faith in me?**

**Danny: No, no, no, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that she can do whatever…**

**Sam: Zip it, Danny, I don't want to hear it. I know she can do with us whatever she wants, but you still should trust me.**

**Me: Well… I was thinking maybe…**

**Sam & Danny: SHUT UP!**

**Me: *shrugs* Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting, and I know I've lost a lot of readers, but I am still going to finish this story for all of you. I'm sorry!**

Sam woke groggily, feeling numb. She couldn't feel her limbs, she couldn't move. All around her was black and she couldn't open her eyes. _What's happening?_ She thought in panic; _why can't I see anything?_ All around her began to clear a little bit and she was finally able to see: she was in a wide field with long grass, barely any trees, and she was alone in the dark. She couldn't see the moon or stars, only darkness.

Suddenly, she heard a chuckle behind her and she turned around, but she saw no one. Again, the same sinister chuckle that sent shivers down her spine. _Please, let it not be him, everyone but him! _Again she heard the chuckle and she look frantically around her, then, out in the distance she saw a silhouette. As it came nearer, it became clearer. Sam yelped in surprise when she figured out it was Danny and she ran towards him as she could, for she could barely feel her feet.

When she was near enough she launched herself towards him in a tight embrace. "Danny! Danny, my Danny! Are you alright? What happened and where are we? Did we die…?" Sam's voice trailed off when Danny laughed halfheartedly and looked at her with longing eyes; an expression that didn't suit the moment, because they were face to face. "Danny? What's wrong?"

Still, Danny didn't talk and he just stared at her. Then, his eyes went glassy and he doubled over himself in great pain. "Danny what's happening? Danny! Tell me something, anything!" Sam begged while trying to figure out to help his boyfriend. Danny went limb in her arms and she feared the worst, but when he started standing up again Sam sighed in relief… too soon.

Again, she heard the sinister chuckle, but this time it came from Danny. When she looked at him closer she found not Danny, but Dan grinning evilly in his place_. What? No, it's not possible._ "Where is Danny? What have you done to him?" Sam yelled backing away. While she took a step back, Dan took one closer, so the gap between them never grew, much to Sam's annoyance. They were way too close and she feared for her life.

Dan chuckled again. "Oh, poor little and naïve Sam, don't you see?" he mocked her while closing even more the gap between them. Sam gave another step backwards but tripled on her feet and fell hard on the floor. She noticed they were not in the field anymore, but in Amity Park, behind her was Danny's house… on ruins.

"What is there to see? What have you done?" Sam asked, panic in her voice and shivering from head to toe. A million of bad situations ran through her mind, scaring even more, but she couldn't bring herself to think straight.

"Poor Sammy, only survivor of the massacre of Amity Park, caused by none other than her beloved boyfriend Danny, aka, me," Dan declared regretless and mockingly at her.

"No, it's not true. You are not Danny…" she muttered in denial, out of pure fear, not really believing it herself.

"Oh, but it is true Sammy, I killed everyone. Tucker, Jazz, my parents… you should have seen their faces! So beautiful, screaming in pain, begging for mercy; only one person is left, and that, my dear, is you. Don't worry, I'll make sure you die slowly and painfully," Dan said with an innocent tone, malice in every letter and every word. Sam shivered even harder, her eyes wide in fear. _This is it? Am I going to die like this?_ She thought hopelessly.

**Please, Sam, be strong and come back to me.**

She heard Danny's voice; her Danny's! She felt stronger and reassured, the Dan in front of her was not her Danny, and now she could see it clearly! Now, it was Dan's turn to look confused and lost, where had that voice come from? "No, that shouldn't be happening…" he muttered to himself.

"You are not Danny!" Sam told him, suddenly able to stand up. Though her legs were still shaking, she knew she could get out of there alive and meet Danny, who was waiting for her. But, where was he? He couldn't figure that out yet. "I don't know who or what you are, or where we are, but I'm going to get out of here to meet MY Danny," she declared proudly, a new strength washing over her.

Dan just laughed at her. "Really? And how exactly are you going to go that?" Out of the blue Dan shoots at her one of his rays, knocking her over to a wall behind her; the air left her lungs and she started choking. "If you can't even fight me, how are you going to get out of your own nightmare?"

"Night-mare?" she managed to choke out. "Is this… a nightmare?"

"I don't know, is it? As far as I'm concerned, you might never wake up," Dan laughed again and shot another ray at her. This time, out of pure instinct Sam raised her arm above her head, hoping it would somehow stop the ray. Much to her luck and surprise, when the ectoplasm was going to hit her hard, from her arm appeared a shield that deflected the attack. She chuckled nervously at the thought of almost dying, but she stood up and dusted herself off, when he lowered her arm, the shield disappeared and she caught on the way she could get out of there.

"Yes, it is a nightmare, but right now I know just how to get out of here and finish you for good!" She exclaimed and pointed her fingers toward Dan as if it were a gun. Out of thin air, a real gun of ectoplasm materialized in her hands and she shoot at Dan without further delay or notice.

Dan received the impact full on his chest and fell backwards with a grunt. He stood up and glared at Sam angrily. More than angry, furious! "Time for games is over missy, you're done!" He said and shot an ectoplasm ray at her hands. She deflected it with the shield she made appear for her. Then, Dan used his ghostly wail against her, breaking her shield and sending her flying backwards. "So much for your shield, huh?" he mocked.

Sam stood up and glared at him. In the hand where the shield used to be she made appear the Jack o' Nine Tails, or at least a version of it for this one was black and purple and without Jack's face in it, and she threw fired it against Dan. He just dodged it and made his punch of ice to hit her. Again, she made the shield appear to defend herself, but when the fist of eye touched the shield it started to freeze. She couldn't remove it before it reached her arm, and with her warm the freezing stopped, still, she had her forearm frozen to the shield and she wasn't able to take it off.

She looked up and Saw Dan diving towards her ready to finish her, but she was starter than that: she threw the gun away from her an instead made the Fenton Thermos appeared. She opened it in the very last minute and pointed it at Dan, who was diving at full speed. When she activated it, Dan's realization dawned on him to late and he couldn't stop. He dove directly into the thermos, which Sam closed and it vanished into the air. So did the shield and the ice on her forearm.

Everything around her started crumbling down and she was left in a void, dark place. She couldn't see anything and she doubted there was something there. _Didn't I win? Shouldn't I be out of here?_ She thought, despair filling her soul. "Danny" she whimpered, "I want to see you…" A lone tear escaped her eye and it felt into the void, losing forever into the darkness.

**Sam… Sam! Come back to me, please, don't give up. I… I'm sorry; this is my entire fault… I need you… Please, don't leave me…**

It was Danny's voice again, and she could hear it all around her, not founding the source. "Danny! I'm here! Help me!" She cried, trying to get through the darkness but finding it impossible. Danny's voice sounded so hurt, so heart broken, that Sam saddened only for listening to it. Suddenly, she felt something tug at her hand, but when she looked at it, there was nothing there.

**Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam…**

She heard Danny cried; her Danny, crying for her to go back to him, so desperately and hopeless. It pained her listening to him like that. She remembered the tug in her hand, and thought of something to at least tell him she was okay. The tug in her hand was probably his hand, so she concentrated on the feeling and squeezed her hand. She felt something hard against it and she squeezed again, earning a squeeze back.

**Sam? I know you're there, I know you listen to me. Please, I know you can find your way back to me. Just …** Danny hesitated …**follow my voice.**

Sam was awestruck suddenly. Hadn't she tried that before? A sudden anger filled her. _What does he think I'm doing? Sit back and enjoy the view? If there is nothing to see! If he thinks I don't try, he's wrong; if he thinks I haven't tried following his voice, then he is wrong. But how can I tell him that his voice just echoes inside my mind? How to tell him that his voice doesn't come from anywhere? Is he seriously thinking I'm not trying?_

Sam didn't know it, but anger is one of the most powerful feelings. That doesn't mean its good, but it's powerful. The force of that feeling from her towards him made everything clearer for her and she could finally see some light, a dot of light in the distance. She calmed down and tried to reach it, but as soon as the anger faded, the light did too.

_What does this mean?_ She asked herself, feeling hopelessly alone. _I am trying to fight the darkness but nothing seems to work. What can I do? How can I go back? I miss him so badly._ Unconsciously she started to remember her times with him, when everything was peaceful. Their first date, their first kiss, their first anniversary as a couple; one occasion in which the fan-club of Danny Phantom, composed of only girls lead by Paulina, plotted to steal a kiss from him. He didn't let them, and when Sam found him with Paulina on his lap, inches away from his face, she felt so heartbroken and so enraged. She stormed off trying to get away, but Danny followed her. She tried to fight back, to get away from him, but she was too weak and he was too strong. He held her in her arms and told her he would always be there for her, that he only had eyes for her. She felt so warm inside at that moment, but she had a façade to keep, so she just snorted and told him that if he ever did that again, he wouldn't live to see another day. After that they laughed and Danny took her to watch the sunset on the hill where they first kissed. She fell asleep, but she could faintly hear Danny humming their song, their lullaby. She had felt so loved, so protected.

She suddenly saw in front of her the same dot of light from before, only this time it was bigger. With the anticipation of seeing her Danny again and the memory fresh in her mind and heart, she ran to the light. This time it didn't disappear, it didn't fade away, on the contrary it became bigger and closer, allowing her to step into it with tears of joy in her eyes.

She took a deep breath. It hurt. Her whole body ached and felt sore, though she couldn't explain herself why. She could feel her feet and her hands, one was cold and one was warm. Something was holding on to it but she couldn't place her finger on what. Without opening her eyelids she could see a faint light, and feel the heat that the sheets gave her, and the support a bed brought to her body. She could hear someone breathing steadily and deeply next to her, that someone was asleep.

After surveying her environment and declaring it was danger-free, she dared to open her eyes. She stared at a ceiling she was familiar with, for she had spent some of her nights in that room. She tried to move, but every part of her body felt heavy, she tried to turn her neck to see the sleeping person, but she only received pain in exchange. She winced slightly, but that movement stirred the person next to her.

"Sam!" Called her a voice she knew too well while her Danny came into view and hugged her tightly. She groaned in pain and Danny quickly apologized and broke the hug. Sam smiled slightly, one of the few movements that didn't hurt her.

"Hi Danny" she said, her voice hoarse from not speaking in too long. "How…" she cleared her throat. "How long was I out?" she asked, fearing the answer.

Danny looked to the ground before smiling at her and shaking his head. "It doesn't matter, you're back now," he replied and Sam could swear she saw a tear in the corner of his eye. "Oh, Sam, I was so worried," he sighed in relief and buried his head in her neck. Without warning, she felt Danny shaking and sobbing.

"Danny… are you -are you crying?" She asked, feeling silly afterwards. _You are so smart, Sam, way to go_, she scolded herself. Danny just sniffed and raised his head to look into her eyes. His eyes were so deep and washed in relief, that Sam couldn't put a finger on why was he crying.

"I'm just so glad you're okay, Sam. I thought… I thought you would never wake up… I feared I had arrived too late," he explained but she shushed him, putting a finger on his lips. It hurt like hell, but she did her best to hide it. What he said made her remember her nightmare, the void and the darkness, the anger, the love, the light.

"If you ever doubt me again, you won't live to see another day," she replied and smiled reassuringly, so that he understood it was half a joke. Danny just smiled and leaned in to kiss her. Then, when their lips were about to touch, the door of his room opened wide and reveled Jazz in the doorway. She obviously wasn't expecting that, for her eyes went wide and she screeched loudly.

"Mom, Dad! Sam's awake!" She yelled at the top of her lungs before running to hug her, never minding that Danny was there sparing her an annoyed look, nor that Sam yelped in pain when Jazz's arms closed around her in a tight embrace. When she broke the hug because of Sam's pleading voice she apologized with tears on her face, but she too felt relieved to see her up.

She hadn't finished telling Sam how worried they had been when through the door three more persons rushed in. Maddie crying her heart out on a tissue, Jack beaming with emotion and a wide grin on his face as well as some loose tears on his eyes, and Tucker who didn't for once slowed down until he too was embracing her tight, much to Sam's annoyance. "You know, Tuck, I'm still not a hug person, besides, you're hurting me," she said softly, trying to reach his friends through his own sobs and tears. He heard it but he didn't want to let go, until Sam complained about how sore her body felt.

"What is wrong with everybody?" she asked skeptically "It's not like I'm back from the dead…" she trailed off when she saw the looks on everyone's faces. That look that said they were holding back the truth and that they didn't know whether to tell her or not. "…is it?" She finished as a whisper, confused.

Everyone in the room looked at each other nervously, not knowing what to do next. "Danny…" she started, but he couldn't bear to look her in the eye and she was getting mad. "You all have thirty seconds to tell me what did I miss and why do you all have those looks before I write your names in my black list… and believe me, that is not a place you want to be in," she threatened, half joking because she would never harm them; she loved them too much, but she'd never tell. Still, the threat got the desired effect and everyone started moving on their spots nervously.

Finally, when Sam had counted twenty five seconds, Danny took a step forward. "I'll tell you Sam," he said with a worried look that made Sam worry too, but she did her best to dissimulate. The rest of her family left the room and waited outside, unsure of what should be told and what shouldn't.

Danny brought the chair of his desk and placed it beside Sam and sat down. He gently grabbed her hand, trying not to hurt her, but it was more for his own comfort than her, still, she didn't know that. "Danny, you should know you are starting to freak me out. Is everything okay?" Sam asked shyly.

"No Sam, it's not. I almost lost you, and that's now okay," Danny suddenly snapped at her. Realizing this and that he had scared her he took a deep breath and apologized to her. "First I want you to tell me how much do you remember?" He asked her.

Sam stayed silent, contemplating her answer. She went back in her memory, to even before she woke up in the field, to Danny's house, after their big argument. "I remember… I woke up in the couch because a huge blast came from the kitchen, and there was Dan… he shoved Tucker and Jazz away with a huge ectoplasm and he came to me. He… leaned in closer… I was so scared, I thought he was going to…" she sighed and calmed down before continuing. "But he didn't, he went to my neck and I knew he was going to bite me, but before he did anything he whispered 'I hope you meet your boyfriend in hell' and then he bite. I remember feeling a soaring pain all over my body before feeling numb and losing consciousness." Sam finished her explanation and looked at Danny, who was shaking all over because of the contained rage he had.

"After that," Danny continued, "he went outside with you as a puppet, mocking me. I felt… so useless. I tried to protect you, yet I failed again. Reinforcements came and he let you go, but you started falling to the ground at an alarming speed. I caught you and took you here, and then I noticed he had bitten you. I went outside to face him, but the others had already caught him in the thermos. I took the thermos and emptied it inside the cage where you cleansed me, and he told me… that…" Danny repressed a sob before clearing his throat. "He told me that I couldn't save you. That he had trapped you into a world of nightmares and that it would slowly drain your life away. Out of rage I got rid of Dan, and with Clockwork's help I bought you some time while making an antidote, when it was done, Clockwork gave it to you. He wasn't sure if you'd wake up because it was a battle of your own. All I could do was watch. I saw you crying, and called out for you. Later you squeezed my hand, but you wouldn't wake up. I was starting to lose hope. You were in a comatose state for almost ten days and I never left your side fearing what might happen if I left you. And you still wouldn't wake up… I tried talking to you, but it seemed to have no effect." He finished and sniffed, without him realizing he had started to cry, but he soon composed himself.

Sam, as she could, put a hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him. She didn't know what to say; no doubt he was so hurt and worried. Then, she remembered their last argument, how he asked for her forgiveness and how she couldn't answer him and guilt stroke her hard. She almost died without telling him she loved him. Danny looked up at her and he grabbed her hand tighter.

"I promise I'll never leave you again. I… I think I understood what you said before, about all the pain and the way you felt when I left, when you thought I had died. I never want to experience something like that again, the pain of losing you… you're right, it'd be too unbearable. And to think I never told you I loved you, that the last time I spoke to you I made you cry, that you felt so miserable… I'm sorry about that. I'm so, so sorry, and I hope you can forgive me. Up until now I never knew such a pain could exist, and even when you explained it to me I didn't fully understood… until I almost lost you." Danny told her looking into her eyes with such sincerity that she felt like crying. No, she didn't felt like crying, she was crying.

Sam gulped loudly and sniffed. "I'm sorry too, Danny. I know it was reckless, but the thought of living without you was just too unbearable and even more knowing you died to protect us… to protect me. I did thought about taking my life because I wanted to be with you, but we never found your body so you could still be alive. And then, when you came back, I felt alive again. When I saw you lying there in the ground I feared for you, but I also feared for me. I'm selfish, I know, but I can't help it. But… when I heard you calling me through my nightmare, I felt like I wasn't alone. You were waiting for me and I had to come back. I had to come back to tell you that I love you," Sam finished and smiled slightly. No other moment could be so prefect and she only had one thing left to say. "Danny, I forgive you," she told him; "and I love you."

Danny smiled at this and Sam returned the smile. Relief fully washed over the both of them and they kissed longingly. After so much waiting, they could be together again, their lips met with all the love they had for each other without having to worry if it would be the last because they now knew it wouldn't. After a very long time, they were once again happy.

The End

**So, guys, this is it! After a long wait, I finally found the inspiration I needed to continue and finish the story. The next chapter will be the epilogue, hopefully I'll upload it tonight as well. I apologize again for the delay and I thank everyone who kept reading until now. I hope you liked it and I would like to hear/read your thought about everything, so please, review. On my last chapter I received none, so I was a bit discouraged, but at least I decided you're worth finishing the story. Thank you very much!**


	10. EPILOGUE

**This is definitely the shortest I've ever written, but it's a nice ending. I hope you like it! And we this, this story has finally reached its end. *snif, snif* I'll miss you all. Thank you for the people who read until the end and please review so that I know what to improve next time. Thanks for youe support again and for the ones that did review thank you. If you have any doubts, you can PM me.**

Epilogue

Danny was pacing nervously back and forth, not knowing what to do with his time. "Danny, please calm down, everything will be okay," Tucker told him reassuringly. Danny looked skeptically at continued his nervous pacing. Tucker rolled his eyes and went back to sit next to Jazz, who was then four months pregnant with Tucker's child.

After a whole lot of arguing, Danny had finally agreed to the relationship those two had. It was comforting for to know that his sister was in good hands and happy, but in the back of his mind he still thought it was kind of awkward that his best friend and his sister were married.

His thought went back to Sam in the hospital room and Danny started pacing faster. Another four years had flown by and Danny had married Sam, who now was in labor about to bring their first child into the world. Their child would be a boy and Sam and Danny already had a name for him: James. They had agreed after a lot of arguing and after Danny complained that Daniel Jr. suited him better; he lost the argument by the way.

No big threats had occurred since their last encounter with Dan and Vlad, the last in prison for a life time after what he had attempted to do. Danny kept his promise and Sam was as happy as it could be. Still, she occasionally had nightmares regarding the matter, but Danny was always there to comfort her.

Danny had reached an agreement with the ghosts and they didn't hunt Amity Park anymore, reason for which everything was more peaceful. He worked as an ambassador between humans and ghosts, and the government paid him a lot of money to keep the ghosts inside the ghost zone. It wasn't hard, though, after everything they went through together they weren't as hard to handle as they used to.

Suddenly, the doctor came out of the room Sam was in and told them they could come in. Danny doesn't wait a minute longer. There, on the bed, he sees her wife. She is blushed and sweaty after the labor, but she has a beautiful and radiant smile on her face. In her arms, she is holding a tiny little baby boy wrapped in a baby blue blanket, courtesy of the hospital. She is smiling towards the baby and when Danny enters she glances over at him, her eyes shining. Her hair had grown in four years and she didn't seem to like the idea of cutting it short again.

Danny neared his wife and newborn and looked at him with awe and immense fatherly love. Then, he looked lovingly at Sam and kissed her. "You did great, Sam. Thank you," he told her and she smiled at his kindness.

"I love you," Sam replied and Danny smiled. They were interrupted by a tiny cry of their son, who trashed around in her mother's arms as if begging for attention. The new parents both laughed at the sight and embraced their son. "I love you too, James" Sam told the newborn and he seemed to smile at that.

Then, Tucker and Jazz enter the room, along with Maddie and Jack. They smiled at the loving family before them and each took turns to carry the baby and spoil him a little. When he returned to his mother's arms he was already asleep. Everyone left the room but Danny, who stayed with his wife a little longer. They would leave to their new house the next day. It was a beautiful, two stores house near the park that Danny had bought for them.

With the arrival of little James their lives would be busy and full of laughter and happiness. Neither denied that there may have been scolding and maybe sometimes they would get upset, but they hoped that the happy times prevailed.

Sam and Danny started a quiet conversation to avoid waking the baby up. They talked about how their lives had turned out and how much they loved each other. In the backs of their mind they remembered the hard times they had before, and they knew they would have to tell little James about his father's enemies to protect him, but they hoped it could wait some years.

Suddenly, in the middle of the conversation, Danny's ghost sense went off. He looked around worriedly as Sam took the baby and cradled it in her arms, ready to defend her baby at all costs. Danny transformed and surveyed the building, but found no threat. He went back to his wife's room and his ghost sense went off.

He neared his son and his wife, who had a worried look. Danny took his son and uncovered his little face so soft the baby wouldn't feel it. When he saw his son and related two and two he let out a small chuckle. He went next to Sam and explained. Their little son, who had little black hair on the top of his head, now had it white. Sam saw in amusement how right in his arms his baby transformed into a human again.

"So, I guess our baby inherited some of my powers and my half of ghost," Danny said, trying hard not to laugh.

Sam snorted and looked at Danny mischievously. "Then, you'll be in charge of him as long as he can't control his powers and you'll have to teach him how to use them," she said.

Danny contemplated her with wide eyes as realization sank in. He sighed, "I suppose it's true, but no one says it can't be fun," he replied.

"I know. In fact, I bet you two are going to have maybe too much fun," she said, faking distress as to what pranks could he son and husband play on her. They both laughed and put the baby in his little cradle while they drifted off to sleep as well. Their lives were as perfect as they could get and they wanted to enjoy the feeling. They were living their own happily ever after.


End file.
